Total nonfarm employment for the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta Metropolitan Statistical Area stood at 2,506,400 in November 2014, an increase of 59,600 or 2.4 percent, from a year ago, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Janet S. Rankin noted that the Atlanta area has recorded over-the-year employment gains each month for over 4 years. Nationally, nonfarm employment increased 2.0 percent from November 2013 to November 2014. (See chart 1 and table 1; the Technical Note at the end of this release contains the metropolitan area definitions. All data in this release are not seasonally adjusted; accordingly, over-the-year analysis is used throughout.)

Industry employment

Trade, transportation, and utilities added the most jobs in the Atlanta metropolitan area from November 2013 to November 2014, up 24,200, or 4.4 percent. Atlanta’s trade, transportation, and utilities supersector has recorded over-the-year employment gains each month since October 2010. Nationally, employment grew 2.0 percent in this supersector from November a year ago. (See chart 2.)

Professional and business services had the second largest increase in jobs locally, increasing by 13,300 from the previous November. Employment in this supersector grew 3.0 percent in Atlanta compared to 3.6 percent for the nation.

Leisure and hospitality (7,100) and financial activities (5,700) were the only other supersectors in the Atlanta area to add more than 5,000 jobs from November 2013. Over the 12 months, employment in leisure and hospitality grew 2.8 percent locally compared to 2.6 percent nationally. Employment in the area’s financial activities industry grew 3.6 percent since November 2013, more than double the national rate of 1.5 percent for this supersector. Four other supersectors in the Atlanta area gained at least 1,000 jobs from November 2013 to November 2014.

Other services was the only supersector in the Atlanta area that recorded an employment decline from the previous November, down 1,500 or 1.6 percent. Nationally, this supersector added jobs over the 12-month period, increasing 1.2 percent.

Employment in the 12 largest metropolitan areas

Atlanta was 1 of the nation’s 12 largest metropolitan statistical areas in November 2014. Eleven of these areas experienced over-the-year job growth during the period, with six exceeding the national average of 2.0 percent. The fastest rate of job growth was in Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, up 4.4 percent, followed by Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, at 3.5 percent. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria had the slowest rate of job growth, 0.6 percent. Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington had the only over-the-year decline, down 0.2 percent. (See chart 3 and table 2.)

The Houston area added the largest number of jobs, 125,300, since November 2013. Two other metropolitan areas gained more than 100,000 jobs–Dallas (111,500) and New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island (107,900). Detroit recorded the smallest employment gain over the year, up 12,500 jobs, while Philadelphia lost 4,800 jobs.

Professional and business services led employment growth in 4 of the 12 metropolitan areas over the year: Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, Dallas, San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, and Washington. Education and health services also recorded the largest gains in four areas: Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Houston, Los-Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, and New York.

Over the year, manufacturing recorded the largest over-the-year loss of jobs in three areas—Dallas, Los Angeles, and New York. Boston, Houston, and Miami experienced no annual job losses for any supersector.

Metropolitan area employment data for December 2014 are scheduled to be released on Wednesday, February 04, 2015, at 10:00 a.m. (ET).

Technical Note

This release presents nonfarm payroll employment estimates from the Current Employment Statistics (CES) program. The CES survey is a Federal-State cooperative endeavor between State employment security agencies and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Definition. Employment data refer to persons on establishment payrolls who receive pay for any part of the pay period which includes the 12^th of the month. Persons are counted at their place of work rather than at their places of residence; those appearing on more than one payroll are counted on each payroll.  Industries are classified on the basis of their principal activity in accordance with the 2007 version of the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).

Method of estimation. The employment data are estimated using a “link relative” technique in which a ratio (link relative) of current-month employment to that of the previous month is computed from a sample of establishments reporting for both months. The estimates of employment for the current month are obtained by multiplying the estimates for the previous month by these ratios. Small-domain models are used as the official estimators for approximately 39 percent of CES published series which have insufficient sample for direct sample-based estimates.

Annual revisions. Employment estimates are adjusted annually to a complete count of jobs, called benchmarks, derived principally from tax reports which are submitted by employers who are covered under state unemployment insurance (UI) laws. The benchmark information is used to adjust the monthly estimates between the new benchmark and the preceding one and also to establish the level of employment for the new benchmark month. Thus, the benchmarking process establishes the level of employment, and the sample is used to measure the month-to-month changes in the level for the subsequent months.

Reliability of the estimates. The estimates presented in this release are based on sample survey, administrative data, and modeling and, thus are subject to sampling and other types of errors. Sampling error is a measure of sampling variability—that is, variation that occurs by chance because a sample rather than the entire population is surveyed. Survey data are also subject to nonsampling errors, such as those which can be introduced into the data collection and processing operations. Estimates not directly derived from sample surveys are subject to additional errors resulting from the special estimation processes used. The sums of individual items are not always equal the totals shown in the same tables because of rounding.

Employment estimates. Measures of sampling error for state CES data at the supersector level are available online at www.bls.gov/sae/additional-resources/reliability-of-state-and-area-estimates.htm. Information on recent benchmark revisions for states is available at www.bls.gov/sae/.

Area definitions. The substate area data published in this release reflect the standards and definitions established by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget on December 1, 2009. A detailed list of the geographic definitions is available at www.bls.gov/lau/lausmsa.htm.

The Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, Ga. Metropolitan Statistical Area
includes the counties of Barrow, Bartow, Butts, Carroll, Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, Coweta, Dawson, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett, Haralson, Heard, Henry, Jasper, Lamar, Meriwether, Newton, Paulding, Pickens, Pike, Rockdale, Spalding, and Walton in Georgia.