Total nonfarm employment for the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, Ga. Metropolitan Statistical Area stood at 2,739,500 in April 2017, up 87,200, or 3.3 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 April 2016 to April 2017, up 27,500 or 5.7 percent. Nationwide, employment in professional and business services rose 2.9 percent from the previous April. (See chart 2.)

Trade, transportation, and utilities employment increased by 12,800 since last April, the second-largest gain in the Atlanta area. The 2.2-percent rate of local job growth for this supersector was greater than the 0.7-percent national gain.

Two other supersectors in the Atlanta area gained at least 10,000 jobs since last April. The area’s leisure and hospitality supersector gained 11,700 jobs, up 4.1 percent; nationwide, employment in this supersector rose 1.8 percent over the year. Education and health services added 10,200 jobs in the local area. The 3.1-percent rate of local job growth exceeded the national gain of 2.2 percent.

Six of the seven remaining supersectors had over-the-year job gains ranging from 7,600 to 1,000 in April 2017.

Employment in the 12 largest metropolitan areas

Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell was 1 of the nation’s 12 largest metropolitan statistical areas in April 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 1.4 percent. Atlanta had the fastest rate of job growth, 3.3 percent, followed by Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington at 3.0 percent. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin had the slowest rate of job growth, up 0.3 percent. (See chart 3 and table 2.)

The Dallas area added the largest number of jobs over the year, 104,600, followed by Atlanta (+87,200) and New York-Newark-Jersey City (+83,100). Chicago had the smallest employment gain over the year, adding 13,800 jobs, followed by Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, which added 38,000 jobs.

Over the year, education and health services added the most jobs in seven areas: Chicago, Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, New York, Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, and San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward. Manufacturing lost the most jobs over the year in three areas: Boston-Cambridge-Nashua, New York, and Philadelphia. Atlanta and San Francisco had no annual job losses in any supersector.

Metropolitan area employment data for May 2017 are scheduled to be released on Friday, June 16, 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 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 July 15, 2015. 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.