Total nonfarm employment for the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area stood at 2,427,900 in May 2020, down 291,800 over the year, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Miami’s rate of job loss, at 10.7 percent, was below the national decline of 11.8 percent. (See chart 1 and table 1.) Regional Commissioner Janet S. Rankin noted that Miami’s over-the-year employment loss in May was less than the 371,400 jobs lost in April. (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 lost jobs over the year. Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, the largest of the three divisions with 45 percent of the area’s employment, lost 122,800 jobs from May a year ago. The Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach Division, which accounted for 32 percent of Miami area’s workforce, lost 97,700 jobs, while the West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Delray Beach Division lost 71,300 jobs over the 12-month period.

Industry employment

Employment in Miami’s leisure and hospitality supersector fell sharply (-129,100) for the 12 months ending in May, the largest loss of jobs among local major industry sectors. Miami’s 38.3-percent rate of job loss for the leisure and hospitality industry compared to the 40.6-percent national decline. (See chart 2.)

The trade, transportation, and utilities sector in the Miami area lost 50,100 jobs, an 8.2-percent decline over the year. Over half of the jobs lost in this sector were in the Miami metropolitan division (-26,100). Nationally, employment in trade, transportation, and utilities was down 10.0 percent over the year.

Two other supersectors in the Miami area lost over 30,000 jobs since last May. The professional and business services supersector in the local area lost 39,300 jobs, down 8.8 percent; nationwide, employment in professional and business services was down 8.7 percent. Miami’s education and health services industry lost 33,400 jobs over the year, down 8.1 percent; nationwide, employment in this supersector was down 7.6 percent.

Five other local area supersectors had job losses greater than 1,000, ranging from 16,600 in other services to 1,100 in construction.

Employment in the 12 largest metropolitan areas

Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach was 1 of the nation’s 12 largest metropolitan statistical areas in May 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 11.8 percent. New York-Newark-Jersey City had the highest rate of job loss (-18.1 percent), followed by Boston-Cambridge-Nashua (-16.2 percent). Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale (-5.1 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 (-1,811,400), followed by Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim (-859,000). The smallest employment loss occurred in Phoenix (-111,000). Annual losses in the remaining nine metropolitan areas ranged from 576,700 in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin to 226,800 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 (-589,100), followed by Los Angeles (-342,700). Phoenix had the smallest job loss for the leisure and hospitality sector (-62,500), followed by Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land (-86,600). The remaining eight areas had job losses of over 100,000 for this industry sector.

Dallas was the only area to have job gains over 1,000 in any supersector from May 2019 to May 2020, with an increase of 9,000 jobs in financial activities.

Metropolitan area employment data for June 2020 are scheduled to be released on Friday, July 17, 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 Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area includes the counties of Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach in Florida.

• The Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach, FL Metropolitan Division includes Broward County in Florida.
• The Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, FL Metropolitan Division includes Miami-Dade County in Florida
• The West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Delray Beach, FL 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 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.