Total nonfarm employment for the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, Ga. Metropolitan Statistical Area stood at 2,710,900 in February 2017, up 95,400, or 3.6 percent, over the year, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Janet S. Rankin noted that the Atlanta area has had over-the-year employment gains of 75,000 or more since January 2016. (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, the professional and business services industry had the largest employment gain from February 2016 to February 2017, up 22,100 or 4.6 percent. Nationwide, employment in professional and business services rose 3.0 percent from the previous February. (See chart 2.)

Leisure and hospitality employment increased by 17,600 since last February, the second-largest gain in the Atlanta area. The local growth rate for leisure and hospitality (6.6 percent) was greater than the nationwide average of 1.9 percent.

Two other supersectors in the Atlanta area gained at least 12,000 jobs since last February. —The area’s trade, transportation, and utilities gained 13,400 jobs, up 2.3 percent; nationwide, this supersector rose 1.0 percent over the year. Education and health services in Atlanta added 12,700 jobs, a 3.8-percent increase which exceeded the national gain of 2.5 percent.

There was no over-the-year loss of jobs among any of the major industry supersectors for the Atlanta area ending February 2017.

Twelve largest metropolitan areas

Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell was 1 of the nation’s 12 largest metropolitan statistical areas in February 2017. All 12 areas had over-the-year job growth during the period, with the rates of job growth in 7 areas exceeding the national increase of 1.7 percent. Atlanta had the fastest rate of job growth, 3.6 percent, followed by Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington at 3.5 percent. Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land and Chicago-Naperville-Elgin had the slowest rates of job growth at 0.6 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively. (See chart 3 and table 2.)

The New York-Newark-Jersey City area added the largest number of jobs over the year, 145,800, followed by Dallas (+119,300) and Atlanta (+95,400). Houston had the smallest employment gain over the year, adding 19,300 jobs.

Education and health services had the largest employment gain in six areas—Boston-Cambridge-Nashua, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, New York, Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, and San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward. Professional and business services added the most jobs in three areas—Atlanta, Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, and Washington-Arlington-Alexandria.

Manufacturing had the largest over-the-year losses in three areas—Boston, Los Angeles, and New York. Four areas experienced no annual job losses in any supersector—Atlanta, Dallas, Philadelphia, and San Francisco.

Metropolitan area employment data for March 2017 are scheduled to be released on Friday, April 21, 2017.

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 https://www.bls.gov/sae/additional-resources/reliability-of-state-and-area-estimates.htm. Information on recent benchmark revisions for states is available at https://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, dated December 1, 2009. A detailed list of the geographic definitions is available at https://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 https://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 https://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.