Total nonfarm employment for the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area stood at 2,688,100 in June 2020, down 157,300 over the year, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Atlanta’s 5.5-percent rate of job loss was less than the national decline of 8.7 percent. (See chart 1 and table 1.) Regional Commissioner Janet S. Rankin noted that Atlanta’s over-the-year employment loss in June was less than the 243,100 jobs lost in May. (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

Employment in Atlanta’s leisure and hospitality supersector fell sharply (-60,700) for the 12 months ending in June, the largest loss of jobs among local major industry sectors. Local employment losses were primarily in the food services and drinking places subsector (-38,500). Atlanta’s over-the-year rate of job loss for the leisure and hospitality industry (-19.4 percent) was smaller than the national rate (-27.1 percent). (See chart 2.)

The professional and business services supersector in the Atlanta area lost 31,300 jobs from June 2019 to June 2020, a 5.7-percent decline. The employment services industry group accounted for 14,900 of the jobs lost in the industry sector. Nationally, employment in professional and business services was down 7.4 percent over the year.

Five other local area supersectors had job losses greater than 9,000, ranging from 12,900 in trade, transportation, and utilities to 9,600 in government.

Employment in the 12 largest metropolitan areas

Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell was 1 of the nation’s 12 largest metropolitan statistical areas in June 2020. All 12 areas had over-the-year job losses during the period, with the rates of job losses in 6 areas exceeding the national decrease of 8.7 percent. New York-Newark-Jersey City had the highest rate of job loss (-15.4 percent), followed by Boston-Cambridge-Nashua (-14.0 percent). Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale (-3.0 percent) had the slowest rate of job loss. (See chart 3 and table 2.)

New York lost the largest number of jobs over the year (-1,549,100), followed by Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim (-650,400). The smallest employment loss occurred in Phoenix (-63,700). Annual losses in the remaining nine metropolitan areas ranged from 466,800 in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin to 141,600 in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington.

Over the year, leisure and hospitality lost the most jobs in all 12 metropolitan areas. New York had the largest loss of jobs for this sector (-521,200), followed by Los Angeles (-237,000). Phoenix had the smallest job loss for the leisure and hospitality sector (-37,400). The remaining nine areas had job losses ranging from 184,900 in Chicago to 56,500 in Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land for this industry sector.

Phoenix and Dallas were the only two metropolitan statistical areas to have annual employment gains in any supersector from June 2019 to June 2020. Phoenix had jobs gains of 1,000 or more for three industry sectors: trade, transportation, and utilities (5,700); education and health services (3,700); and financial activities (1,000). Dallas added 8,300 jobs in financial activities.

Metropolitan area employment data for July 2020 are scheduled to be released on Friday, August 21, 2020.

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 2017 version of the North American Industry Classification System.

Method of estimation. CES State and Area employment data are produced using several estimation procedures. Where possible these data are produced using a "weighted link relative" estimation technique in which a ratio of current-month weighted employment to that of the previous-month weighted employment is computed from a sample of establishments reporting for both months. The estimates of employment for the current month are then obtained by multiplying these ratios by the previous month's employment estimates. The weighted link relative technique is utilized for data series where the sample size meets certain statistical criteria.

For some employment series, the sample of establishments is very small or highly variable. In these cases, a model-based approach is used in estimation. These models use the direct sample estimates (described above), combined with forecasts of historical (benchmarked) data to decrease volatility in estimation. Two different models (Fay-Herriot Model and Small Domain Model) are used depending on the industry level being estimated. For more detailed information about each model, refer to the BLS Handbook of Methods.

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 surveys, administrative data, and modeling 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 the total nonfarm employment series are available for metropolitan areas and metropolitan divisions at www.bls.gov/sae/additional-resources/reliability-of-state-and-area-estimates.htm. Measures of sampling error for more detailed series at the area and division level are available upon request. Measures of sampling error for states at the supersector level and for the private service-providing, goods-producing, total private and total nonfarm levels are available on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/sae/additional-resources/reliability-of-state-and-area-estimates.htm. Information on recent benchmark revisions is available online at www.bls.gov/sae/publications/benchmark-article/annual-benchmark-article.pdf.

Area definitions. The substate area data published in this release reflect the delineations issued by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget on April 10, 2018. 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. Detailed industry employment data for metropolitan areas from the CES program are available from the State and Area Employment databases at www.bls.gov/sae/data/.

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.

Table 1. Employees on nonfarm payrolls by industry supersector, United States and the Atlanta metropolitan area, not seasonally adjusted (numbers in thousands)

Area and Industry	June 2019	Apr 2020	May 2020	June 2020(p)	June 2019 to June 2020(p)
					Net change	Percent change
United States
Total nonfarm	151,739	130,317	133,410	138,513	-13,226	-8.7
Mining and logging	746	643	632	628	-118	-15.8
Construction	7,699	6,465	7,073	7,359	-340	-4.4
Manufacturing	12,922	11,432	11,708	12,169	-753	-5.8
Trade, transportation, and utilities	27,698	24,253	24,740	25,753	-1,945	-7.0
Information	2,874	2,607	2,561	2,586	-288	-10.0
Financial activities	8,783	8,523	8,552	8,650	-133	-1.5
Professional and business services	21,428	19,215	19,398	19,836	-1,592	-7.4
Education and health services	23,939	21,972	22,243	22,569	-1,370	-5.7
Leisure and hospitality	17,219	8,485	10,107	12,556	-4,663	-27.1
Other services	5,970	4,564	4,852	5,254	-716	-12.0
Government	22,461	22,158	21,544	21,153	-1,308	-5.8
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area
Total nonfarm	2,845.4	2,547.5	2,600.3	2,688.1	-157.3	-5.5
Mining and logging	1.6	1.5	1.6	1.5	-0.1	-6.3
Construction	131.4	124.0	126.3	128.2	-3.2	-2.4
Manufacturing	171.8	149.8	153.1	159.9	-11.9	-6.9
Trade, transportation, and utilities	600.2	575.0	575.0	587.3	-12.9	-2.1
Information	101.5	94.0	90.3	91.2	-10.3	-10.1
Financial activities	177.3	167.6	172.5	173.4	-3.9	-2.2
Professional and business services	549.4	494.4	504.1	518.1	-31.3	-5.7
Education and health services	364.7	353.3	357.3	361.7	-3.0	-0.8
Leisure and hospitality	312.2	176.7	207.3	251.5	-60.7	-19.4
Other services	104.8	81.3	88.0	94.4	-10.4	-9.9
Government	330.5	329.9	324.8	320.9	-9.6	-2.9
Footnotes (p) Preliminary