Total nonfarm employment for the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach Metropolitan Statistical Area stood at 2,643,900 in March 2017, up 65,400, or 2.5 percent, over the year, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Nationally, employment increased 1.5 percent from March 2016 to March 2017. 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 44 percent of the area’s employment, added 23,400 jobs from March a year ago. The Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach division which accounted for 32 percent of Miami area’s workforce, added 27,800 jobs. The West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Delray Beach division, with 24 percent of the workforce, added 14,200 jobs over the 12-month period.

Industry employment

Professional and business services added 17,300 jobs in March 2017, an increase of 4.1 percent over the year, with the largest gain in the Fort Lauderdale metropolitan division. Nationwide, employment in this industry grew 3.2 percent over the 12-month period. (See chart 2.)

Education and health services had the second largest over-the-year increase in the local area, adding 17,100 jobs, a 4.5-percent gain from March 2016. Job growth in this industry was concentrated in the Miami and Fort Lauderdale metropolitan divisions. Nationally, employment in this industry grew 2.3 percent since March 2016.

The local trade, transportation, and utilities supersector added 9,800 jobs from March 2016 to March 2017, a gain of 1.7 percent. All three metropolitan divisions added jobs in this supersector from March a year ago. Nationwide, employment in this industry grew 0.6 percent over the 12-month period.

Three other supersectors gained at least 5,000 jobs over the year in the local area—government (+6,800), construction (+5,300), and leisure and hospitality (+5,200). The local government and construction sectors had rates of job growth that were faster than their respective national rates.

Financial activities was the only supersector in the Miami area that lost more than 1,000 jobs from the previous March, down 1,400 (-0.8 percent). Nationally this supersector added jobs over the 12-month period, advancing 2.2 percent.

Twelve largest metropolitan areas

Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach was 1 of the nation’s 12 largest metropolitan statistical areas in March 2017. All 12 areas had over-the-year job growth during the period, with the rates of job growth in 9 areas exceeding the national increase of 1.5 percent. Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell had the fastest rate of job growth, 3.9 percent, followed by Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington at 3.8 percent. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin and Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land had the slowest rates of job growth at 0.8 percent and 1.0 percent, respectively. (See chart 3 and table 2.)

Dallas added the largest number of jobs over the year (+129,700). The New York-Newark-Jersey City, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, and Atlanta areas also added over 100,000 jobs each. Houston had the smallest employment gain over the year, adding 30,900 jobs.

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

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

Metropolitan area employment data for April 2017 are scheduled to be released on Friday, May 19, 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 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 July 15, 2015. 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.