Total nonfarm employment for the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach Metropolitan Statistical Area stood at 2,568,900 in September 2016, up 61,800, or 2.5 percent, over the year, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Nationally, employment increased 1.7 percent from September 2015 to September 2016. 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 44 percent of the area’s employment, added 14,900 jobs from September a year ago. The Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach division which accounted for 32 percent of the Miami area’s workforce, added 35,400 jobs. The West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Delray Beach division, with 23 percent of the workforce, added 11,500 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 18,600 or 4.6 percent from September a year ago. This supersector gained jobs in all three metropolitan divisions over-the-year. Nationwide, employment in this industry grew 3.0 percent over the 12-month period. (See chart 2.)

Trade, transportation, and utilities had the second largest over-the-year increase in jobs locally in September 2016, growing by 13,200 or 2.3 percent, with the largest gains occurring in the Fort Lauderdale metropolitan division. Nationally, employment in this industry grew 1.4 percent since September 2015.

Locally, the construction and leisure and hospitality supersectors each added 7,100 jobs over-the-year, up 6.2 and 2.4 percent, respectively. All three metropolitan divisions had annual job gains in these sectors. Nationwide, the rate of job growth was 3.1 percent for construction and 2.4 percent for leisure and hospitality.

The education and health services supersector added 7,000 jobs from September 2015 to September 2016, a gain of 1.9 percent. Job gains in local education and health services occurred in each of Miami’s metropolitan divisions. Nationally, this sector increased 2.8 percent over-the-year.

Twelve largest metropolitan areas

Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach was 1 of the nation’s 12 largest metropolitan statistical areas in September 2016. All 12 areas had over-the-year job growth during the period, with the rates of job growth in nine areas exceeding the national increase of 1.7 percent. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington had the fastest rate of job growth, 3.6 percent, followed by Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell (2.9 percent), and San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward (2.6 percent). Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land and Chicago-Naperville-Elgin had the slowest rates of job growth. (See chart 3 and table 2.)

New York-Newark-Jersey City added the largest number of jobs, 169,400, followed by Dallas (+122,300) and Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim (+113,600). Houston had the smallest employment gain over the year, adding 20,100 jobs.

Professional and business services had the largest employment gain in six areas—Atlanta, Chicago, Miami, Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, San Francisco, and Washington-Arlington-Alexandria. Education and health services added the most jobs in 4 areas—Boston-Cambridge-Nashua, Los Angeles, New York, and Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale.

Manufacturing had the largest over-the-year losses in six areas—Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, and Phoenix. New York was the only area to have no job losses in any supersector.

Metropolitan area employment data for October 2016 are scheduled to be released on Friday, November 18, 2016, 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 total nonfarm and supersector levels and for metropolitan area CES data. Information on recent benchmark revisions for states is available on the BLS web site 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 online 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 CES program are also available in the above mentioned news releases and from the BLS website 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.