Total nonfarm employment in the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land Metropolitan Statistical Area stood at 2,986,100 in January 2017, up 9,300, or 0.3 percent, from one year earlier, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. During the same period, the national job count increased 1.5 percent. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Stanley W. Suchman noted that the January increase marked the 16^th consecutive month of annual employment 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, 3 of 11 industry supersectors added more than 10,000 jobs each from January 2016 to January 2017. Government added 12,800 jobs over the year, the largest gain among Houston’s major sectors. Local government accounted for nearly two-thirds of the employment increase (+8,400), with educational services accounting for the bulk of the local government gain (+7,000). In the Houston area, government employment increased 3.3 percent over the year compared to a 0.8-percent national gain. (See table 1 and chart 2.) 

The education and health services industry had the second-largest annual employment gain among the local supersectors, adding 10,900 jobs from January 2016. The 2.9-percent rise compared to a national increase of 2.3 percent. Locally, ambulatory health care services (+4,000) and hospitals (+3,000) added the most jobs in this sector.

Houston’s leisure and hospitality industry added 10,300 jobs from January 2016 to January 2017. The 3.4-percent rate of local job growth in this supersector compared to a 1.9-percent national increase. The industry gains in Houston were concentrated in food services and drinking places, which added 8,200 jobs during the period.

Financial activities added 1,600 jobs in the local area from January 2016. Job gains were concentrated in insurance carriers and related activities (+1,100). Employment in Houston’s financial activities sector increased 1.0 percent compared to an annual increase of 2.3 percent for the nation.

Employment was little changed over the year in several local supersectors, including trade, transportation, and utilities, the area’s largest employer. Within the supersector, annual job losses in wholesale trade were offset by job gains in retail trade and in transportation and warehousing.

Four industry supersectors lost more than 1,000 jobs each over the year. Manufacturing had the largest job loss, declining by 9,500 from January 2016 to January 2017. Within manufacturing, job losses were limited to the durable goods sector (-10,600), particularly the agriculture, construction, and mining machinery industry (-6,800) where employment was down 20.6 percent. In contrast, local nondurable goods manufacturing employment increased by 1,100 over the year. Local employment in the manufacturing supersector was down 4.1 percent in the 12-month period compared to a 0.3-percent national decline.

Houston’s mining and logging industry lost 8,600 jobs from January 2016, continuing the sector’s over-the-year declines that began in February 2015. However, the 9.0-percent local rate of annual job loss in January 2017 was the sector’s slowest since June 2015. Nationally, employment in the supersector was down 8.2 percent from January 2016.

Construction lost 8,200 jobs from January 2016 to January 2017. More than half of the sector’s job losses were in the heavy and civil engineering industry, where employment fell by 4,500 over the year, a 9.0-percent decline. Local employment in the construction supersector declined at a 3.8-percent annual pace, compared to an increase of 2.6 percent nationwide.

Houston’s professional and business services supersector lost 1,000 jobs from January 2016 to January 2017. Movements within the sector varied, ranging from 4,800 jobs lost in the architectural, engineering, and related services industry to 5,900 jobs added in employment services, the industry which includes temporary help companies. Over the year, employment in the local professional and business services supersector declined 0.2 percent compared to a 2.8-percent national gain.

Employment in the 12 largest metropolitan areas

Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land was 1 of the nation’s 12 largest metropolitan statistical areas in January 2017. All 12 areas had over-the-year job growth during the period, with 9 exceeding the national average of 1.5 percent. The fastest rate of job growth was in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, up 4.0 percent, followed by Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell at 3.7 percent. Houston (0.3 percent) and Chicago-Naperville-Elgin (0.5 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, 158,000, followed by Dallas (+135,400) and Atlanta (+96,800). Houston had the smallest employment gain over the year, adding 9,300 jobs, followed by Chicago, which added 22,600 jobs.

Over the year, education and health services added the most jobs in six areas: Boston-Cambridge-Nashua, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, New York, Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, and San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward. Manufacturing lost the most jobs over the year in four areas: Boston, Houston, Los Angeles, and New York.

Metropolitan area employment data for February 2017 are scheduled to be released on Friday, March 24, 2017, 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.