Total nonfarm employment in the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land Metropolitan Statistical Area stood at 3,022,800 in October 2016, up 13,400, or 0.4 percent, from one year earlier, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. During the same period, the national job count increased 1.6 percent. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Stanley W. Suchman noted that October 2016 marked the 12^th consecutive month of annual gains below 1.0 percent in the Houston area. (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 Houston metropolitan area, 4 of 11 industry supersectors experienced over-the-year increases of nearly 10,000 or more jobs. Education and health services had the largest annual gain among Houston’s supersectors adding 13,600 jobs, a 3.6-percent rise from October 2015; nationally, employment in this industry rose 2.6 percent. (See table 1 and chart 2.) Locally, ambulatory health care services (+6,000) and hospitals (+4,100) added the majority of the supersector’s jobs.

The leisure and hospitality industry had the second largest annual job gain among Houston’s supersectors, adding 13,400 jobs since October 2015. The 4.4-percent local rate of job growth in this supersector was more than double the national rate of 1.9 percent. The industry gains in Houston were concentrated in food services and drinking places, which added 11,300 jobs during the period.

Trade, transportation, and utilities–the area’s largest supersector–added 10,400 jobs, up 1.7 percent from October 2015 to October 2016; nationally, the supersector expanded 1.3 percent. The local area’s retail trade industry gained 11,800 jobs and transportation and utilities added 2,300 jobs, but these gains were partially countered by a decline in the third industry component, wholesale trade (-3,700).

Government employment expanded by 9,300 jobs over the year, with local government accounting for the largest share (+7,400). Nearly all of the local government employment gain was in educational services, which added 7,200 jobs during the period. In the Houston area, total government employment increased 2.4 percent compared to a 0.9-percent gain nationally.

Over-the-year job declines occurred in 6 of 11 industry supersectors in the Houston area in October 2016. Construction had the largest job loss, declining by 9,700 between October 2015 and October 2016. Employment in specialty trade contractors fell 7,100 and the heavy and civil engineering industry fell 2,900. Local jobs in the construction supersector declined at a 4.3-percent pace over the year, compared to a gain of 2.6 percent nationwide.

Houston’s mining and logging industry lost 8,400 jobs since October 2015, continuing its over-the-year declines that began in February 2015. However, the local rate of annual job loss for this industry was was 8.9 percent in October 2016, the slowest rate of job loss since June 2015. Nationally, employment in the supersector fell at a faster pace, down 12.8 percent.

Locally, manufacturing jobs declined by 6,800 since October 2015. Losses were limited to the durable goods manufacturing sector (-10,500), particularly the agriculture, construction, and mining machinery industry (-5,300). In contrast, local nondurable goods manufacturing employment increased by 3,700 over the year. Houston’s nondurable goods manufacturing sector has gained jobs annually for more than five years since July 2011. Employment in the manufacturing supersector fell 2.8 percent locally compared to a 0.5-percent national decline.

Houston’s professional and business services supersector lost 5,300 jobs between October 2015 and October 2016 mainly in the architectural, engineering, and related services industry which fell by 6,800. In contrast to the 2.7-percent national gain, jobs in the local professional and business services supersector declined 1.1 percent over the year.

Employment in the 12 largest metropolitan areas

Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land was 1 of the nation’s 12 largest metropolitan statistical areas in October 2016. All 12 areas had over-the-year job growth during the period, with 8 exceeding the national average of 1.6 percent. The fastest rate of job growth was in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, up 3.3 percent. Houston (0.4 percent) and Chicago-Naperville-Elgin (0.8 percent) had the slowest rates of job growth. (See chart 3 and table 2.)

The New York-Newark-Jersey City area added the largest number of jobs over the year, 135,600, followed by Dallas (+114,000) and Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim (+111,200). Houston had the smallest employment gain over the year, adding 13,400 jobs, followed by Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, which added 37,800 jobs.

Over the year, education and health services added the most jobs in Boston-Cambridge-Nashua, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix, and San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward. Professional and business services gained the most jobs in Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, Chicago, Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, and Washington-Arlington-Alexandria. Manufacturing lost the most jobs over the year in four areas—Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

Metropolitan area employment data for November 2016 are scheduled to be released on Friday, December 16, 2016, 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 that 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 the 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 that 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. Measures of sampling error are available for state CES data at the total nonfarm and supersector level 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 standards and definitions established by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, dated February 28, 2013. A detailed list of the geographic definitions is available at www.bls.gov/lau/lausmsa.htm.

The Houston-The Woodlands-Sugarland Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Austin, Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Liberty, Montgomery, and Waller Counties in Texas.

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.