Total nonfarm employment for the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach Metropolitan Statistical Area stood at 2,505,100 in March 2015, up 91,800, or 3.8 percent, over the year, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Nationally, employment increased 2.3 percent from March 2014 to March 2015. Regional Commissioner Janet S. Rankin noted that over-the-year employment gains in the local area extended back to August 2010. (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.)

The Miami area is made up of three metropolitan divisions—separately identifiable employment centers within the larger metropolitan area. All three divisions gained jobs over the year. Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, the largest of the three divisions with 45 percent of the area’s employment, added 42,300 jobs from March a year ago. The Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach division which accounted for 32 percent of Miami’s workforce, added 28,900 jobs. The West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Delray Beach division, with 23 percent of the workforce, added 20,600 jobs over the 12-month period.

Industry employment

In the Miami metropolitan area, the trade, transportation, and utilities supersector experienced the largest employment increase, up 18,800 or 3.4 percent from March a year ago. This job growth was concentrated mostly in the Miami metropolitan division. Nationwide, employment in this industry grew 2.3 percent over the 12-month period.  (See chart 2.)

Professional and business services had the second largest over-the-year increase in jobs locally in March 2015, growing by 18,000 or 4.7 percent. This supersector gained jobs in all three metropolitan divisions from March a year ago. Nationwide, professional and business services employment increased 3.5 percent during the same period.

Education and health services added 16,200 jobs in March 2015, an increase of 4.6 percent over the year, with the largest gains occurring in the Miami division. Nationally, employment in this industry grew 2.5 percent since March 2014.

One other supersector, leisure and hospitality (12,000), gained at least 10,000 jobs over the year in the metropolitan area, an increase of 4.0 percent. Nationwide, leisure and hospitality employment grew 3.4 percent from the previous year. Six other area supersectors recorded over-the-year employment gains ranging from 8,000 to 1,200 in March 2015.

Twelve largest metropolitan areas

Miami was 1 of the nation’s 12 largest metropolitan statistical areas in March 2015. All of these areas experienced over-the-year job growth during the period, with seven exceeding the national average of 2.3 percent. The fastest rate of job growth was registered in Miami, up 3.8 percent, followed by Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington (3.6 percent) and San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward (3.4 percent). The slowest rates of job growth were in Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington (1.3 percent) and Chicago-Naperville-Elgin (1.4 percent). (See chart 3 and table 2.)

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim added the largest number of jobs,168,500, since March 2014. Two other metropolitan areas, New York-Newark-Jersey City and Dallas, gained more than 100,000 jobs over the year. Boston-Cambridge-Nashua and Philadelphia added the fewest number of jobs.

Education and health services led employment growth in 7 of the 12 metropolitan areas from a year ago—Boston, Houston-The Woodlands-Sugarland, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, and Washington-Arlington-Alexandria. Trade, transportation, and utilities recorded the largest gains in four areas—Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, Chicago, Dallas, and Miami.

Over the year, manufacturing recorded the largest job losses in Chicago, New York, and Phoenix. Four areas recorded no job losses in any supersector since March 2014—Boston, Dallas, Houston, and Miami.

Metropolitan area employment data for April 2015 are scheduled to be released on Wednesday, June 03, 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.

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 Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, Fla., Metropolitan Statistical Area
includes the counties of Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach in Florida.

• The Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach, Fla., Metropolitan Division includes Broward County in Florida.
• The Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, Fla., Metropolitan Division includes Miami-Dade County in Florida
• The West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Delray, Fla., Metropolitan Division includes Palm Beach County in Florida.

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.