Total nonfarm employment for the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach Metropolitan Statistical Area stood at 2,483,400 in September 2015, up 56,400, or 2.3 percent, over the year, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Nationally, employment increased 1.9 percent from September 2014 to September 2015. Regional Commissioner Janet S. Rankin noted that the local area has had over-the-year employment gains of 50,000 or more since October 2012. (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 21,800 jobs from September a year ago. The Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach division which accounted for 32 percent of Miami’s workforce, added 22,800 jobs. The West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Delray Beach division, with 23 percent of the workforce, added 11,800 jobs over the 12-month period.

Industry employment

In the Miami metropolitan area, the professional and business services supersector had the largest employment increase, up 18,800 or 4.8 percent from September a year ago. All three metropolitan divisions gained jobs in this supersector over the year. Nationwide, employment in this industry grew 3.1 percent over the 12-month period. (See chart 2.)

Leisure and hospitality had the second largest over-the-year increase in jobs locally in September 2015, growing by 11,700 or 4.0 percent. Job growth in this supersector was concentrated in the Miami metropolitan division. Nationwide, leisure and hospitality employment increased 2.9 percent during this period.

Two other supersectors gained at least 8,000 jobs over the year in the metropolitan area. Trade, transportation, and utilities added 8,500 jobs, an increase of 1.5 percent, with the largest gains occurring in the Miami and Fort Lauderdale divisions. Nationally, employment in this industry grew 2.0 percent over the year. Education and health services added 8,000 jobs locally, an increase of 2.2 percent from September 2014. Nationally, this supersector had a 2.6-percent rate of job gain over the year.

Twelve largest metropolitan areas

Miami was 1 of the nation’s 12 largest metropolitan statistical areas in September 2015. All of these areas experienced over-the-year job growth during the period, with six exceeding the national average of 1.9 percent. The fastest rate of job growth was registered in San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, up 3.4 percent, followed by Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington (3.0 percent) and Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell (2.9 percent). The slowest rates of job growth were in Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington and Chicago-Naperville-Elgin (0.9 percent each). (See chart 3 and table 2.)

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim added the largest number of jobs, 129,900, since September 2014. Two other metropolitan areas, New York-Newark-Jersey City and Dallas, gained more than 98,000 jobs over the year. Philadelphia added the fewest jobs.

Professional and business services led employment growth in 6 of the 12 metropolitan areas from a year ago–Atlanta, Boston-Cambridge-Nashua, Chicago, Miami, San Francisco, and Washington-Arlington-Alexandria. Education and health services recorded the largest gains in three areas–Los Angeles, New York, and Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale.

Over the year, manufacturing recorded the largest job losses in 8 of the 12 areas–Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and Washington. Miami was the only area that recorded no job loss of 1,000 or more in any supersector from September 2014 to September 2015.

Metropolitan area employment data for October 2015 are scheduled to be released on Monday, December 7, 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 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.