Total nonfarm employment for the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area stood at 2,573,900 in November 2020, down 176,000 over the year, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. (See table 1.) Regional Commissioner Janet S. Rankin noted that the local rate of job loss, 6.4 percent, compared to the 6.0-percent national decline. (See chart 1.) This was the eighth consecutive month of over-the-year employment declines in the Miami area. (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 had employment declines over the year. The Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall Metropolitan Division, with 45 percent of the area’s total nonfarm employment, lost 68,000 jobs over the year. The Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach-Deerfield Beach Metropolitan Division which accounted for more than 31 percent of the area’s employment, lost 64,400 jobs since November 2019, and the West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Delray Beach Metropolitan Division, with 23 percent of the area’s employment, lost 43,600 jobs.

Industry employment

In the greater Miami area, employment declined in 6 of the 11 supersectors. Leisure and hospitality had the largest loss (-66,300) with all three divisions recording declines. (See chart 2.) The 19.0-percent decline in Miami’s leisure and hospitality supersector compared to the 19.8-percent loss on a national level.

Trade, transportation, and utilities lost 27,200 jobs over the year in the local area. All three divisions lost jobs in this supersector. The Miami area had a 4.3-percent loss compared to the 3.3-percent decline for the nation.

Education and health services lost 24,500 jobs locally, down 5.9 percent; nationwide, employment in education and health services was down 4.4 percent. All three metropolitan divisions lost jobs in this industry from November 2019.

The government industry sector in the Miami area lost 21,400 jobs, a 6.6-percent decrease. Employment in Miami’s professional and business services lost 20,100 jobs, a 4.5-percent decrease. Nationally, employment in government was down 5.3 percent, and employment in professional and business services was down 4.7 percent from November 2019.

Twelve largest metropolitan areas

Miami was 1 of the nation’s 12 largest metropolitan statistical areas in November 2020. All 12 areas lost jobs over the year. New York-Newark-Jersey City had the largest decline (-999,600). Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale has the smallest loss (-57,300) among the largest areas. (See table 2 and chart 3.)

New York had a 9.9-percent rate of job loss, followed by San Francisco-Hayward-Oakland (-9.3 percent). Boston-Cambridge-Nashua had a job loss rate of 9.1 percent. The rates of job losses in the remaining nine areas ranged from 8.1 percent in Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim to 2.5 percent in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington.

The Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment release for December 2020 is scheduled to be released on Wednesday, February 3, 2021, at 10:00 a.m. (ET).

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 at www.bls.gov/opub/hom/pdf/ces-20110307.pdf.

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 also are 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 specific estimation processes used. The sums of individual items may not always equal the totals shown in the same tables because of rounding.

Employment estimates. Changes in metropolitan area nonfarm payroll employment are cited in the analysis of this release only if they have been determined to be statistically significant at the 90-percent confidence level. Measures of sampling error for the total nonfarm employment series are available for metropolitan areas and metropolitan divisions at www.bls.gov/web/laus/790stderr.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 https://www.bls.gov/web/laus/790stderr.htm. Information on recent benchmark revisions is available online at www.bls.gov/web/laus/bmrk_article.htm.

Area definitions. The substate area data published in this news release reflect the delineations issued by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget on April 10, 2018.

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

Employment data from the CES program are available on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/sae/.

Information in this release will be made available to individuals with sensory impairments upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Federal Relay Service: (800) 877-8339.