Total nonfarm employment for the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, Ga. Metropolitan Statistical Area stood at 2,592,200 in August 2015, an increase of 66,400 or 2.6 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 since July 2010. Nationally, nonfarm employment increased 2.1 percent from August 2014 to August 2015. (See chart 1 and table 1; the Technical Note at the end of this release contains metropolitan area definitions. All data in this release are not seasonally adjusted; accordingly, over-the-year analysis is used throughout.)

Industry employment

In the Atlanta metropolitan area, professional and business services recorded the largest employment gain from August 2014 to August 2015, adding 18,500 jobs. The area’s 3.9-percent growth in professional and business services employment was larger than the nationwide increase of 3.4 percent. (See chart 2.)

Trade, transportation, and utilities had the second largest increase in jobs locally, increasing by 16,800 from the previous August. Employment in this supersector grew 3.0 percent in Atlanta compared to 2.1 percent for the nation.

Four other supersectors in the Atlanta area gained at least 4,500 jobs since last August — leisure and hospitality (10,100); education and health services (9,800); construction (7,300); and financial activities (4,800). Locally, the rate of employment in all four supersectors was greater than their respective national rate.

Other services and information were the only supersectors in the Atlanta area that had employment declines greater than 1,000 from the previous August, down 1,300 (-1.4 percent) and 1,100 (-1.2 percent), respectively. Nationally, these supersectors added jobs over the 12-month period, with other services advancing 1.1 percent and information increasing 1.0 percent.

Twelve largest metropolitan areas

Atlanta was 1 of the nation’s 12 largest metropolitan statistical areas in August 2015. All 12 areas experienced over-the-year job growth during the period, with 7 exceeding the national average of 2.1 percent. The fastest rate of job growth was in San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, up 3.2 percent, followed by Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, up 3.1 percent. The slowest growth rates occurred in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin (1.0 percent) and Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington (1.1 percent). (See chart 3 and table 2.)

The New York-Newark-Jersey City area added the largest number of jobs, 161,800 since August 2014. Employment increased by over 100,000 in two other areas— Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim (124,800) and Dallas (103,500). Philadelphia experienced the smallest gain, adding 30,400 jobs over the 12-month period.

Education and health services recorded the most job growth in 5 of the 12 metropolitan areas from August a year ago—Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, and Washington-Arlington-Alexandria. Professional and business services added the most jobs in four other areas—Atlanta, Dallas, Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, and San Francisco.

Manufacturing recorded the largest over-the-year loss of jobs in five areas—Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, and Philadelphia. Los Angeles was the only area to experience no job losses greater than 1,000 for any supersector since last August.

Metropolitan area employment data for September 2015 are scheduled to be released on Wednesday, October 28, 2015.

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.

Definitions. Employment data refer to persons on establishment payrolls who receive pay for any part of the pay period which includes the 12th of the month. Persons are counted at their place of work rather than at their place 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 2012 version of the North American Industry Classification System.

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 and administrative data 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 may 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 on the BLS Web site 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 delineations issued by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget on February 28, 2013. A detailed list of the geographic definitions is available at www.bls.gov/lau/lausmsa.htm.

The Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, 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, Morgan, Newton, Paulding, Pickens, Pike, Rockdale, Spalding, and Walton in Georgia.

Additional information

More complete information on the technical procedures used to develop these estimates and additional data appear in Employment and Earnings, which is available online at www.bls.gov/opub/ee/home.htm. Industry employment data for states and metropolitan areas from the Current Employment Statistics program are also available in the above mentioned news releases and from the Internet at www.bls.gov/sae/.

Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Federal Relay Service: (800) 877-8339.