Los Angeles Area Employment - September 2011

Area payrolls expanded for third straight month

Total nonfarm employment for the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana Metropolitan Statistical Area stood at 5,140,800 in September 2011, an increase of 44,800, or 0.9 percent, over the year, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Nationally, nonfarm employment grew 1.1 percent from September 2010 to September 2011. Richard J. Holden, the Bureau’s regional commissioner, noted that this was the 3rd consecutive month of over-the-year job increases in the Los Angeles area, and the 10th time in the past 12 months that over-the-year job growth was reported. (See chart 1 and table 1. All data in this release are not seasonally adjusted; accordingly, over-the-year analysis is used throughout.)

The Los Angeles metropolitan area is comprised of two metropolitan divisions—separately identifiable employment centers within the larger metropolitan area. The Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale Metropolitan Division, which accounted for 73.5 percent of the area workforce, added 31,400 jobs over the year, close to its share of employment. The Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine Metropolitan Division, with 26.5 percent of area employment, added 13,400 jobs over the year.

Industry employment

In the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the education and health services supersector experienced the largest employment increase, up 17,500 or 2.6 percent from September a year ago. Nationally, employment in this industry grew 2.3 percent over the 12-month period. Los Angeles has recorded uninterrupted over-the-year employment gains in this industry dating back to September 1997. (See chart 2 and table 1.)

Locally, the next largest increase in jobs occurred in leisure and hospitality (15,600). More than one-half of these jobs, 8,300, were in the smaller Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine division. Job growth in Los Angeles’ leisure and hospitality supersector, at 2.8 percent, was more than three times the national industry average.

Three other industries gained more than 1,000 jobs over the year—government (8,600), information (7,200), and professional and business services (6,900). All of the employment gains in government and information occurred in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale metropolitan division; however, both divisions contributed to the growth in professional & business services, with each adding more than 3,000 jobs to their payrolls. Nationwide, government and information lost jobs while professional and business services added jobs, growing at a 3.3-percent pace. Locally, growth in professional and business services expanded more slowly, advancing at a rate of 0.9 percent. (See chart 2.)

Three industry supersectors in the Los Angeles area had employment declines of at least 1,000 from September 2010 to September 2011. Other services suffered the largest loss of jobs, down 4,400 or 2.5 percent. Nationally, this industry added jobs over the 12-month period, increasing 1.2 percent. The financial activities industry posted the second largest loss of jobs in the Los Angeles area, down 3,700, followed by construction (-3,000).

Employment in the 12 largest metropolitan areas

Los Angeles-Long Beach- Santa Ana was 1 of the nation’s 12 largest metropolitan statistical areas in September 2011. Ten of these areas experienced over-the-year job gains during the period, with two – Houston and Dallas – registering rates of job growth more than double the 1.1-percent national average. Boston was the only other area to enjoy above-average growth, adding jobs at a rate of 1.9 percent. Atlanta, in comparison, dropped jobs at a 1.1-percent pace. (See chart 3 and table 2.)

Of the 10  areas experiencing employment increases from the previous September, Dallas added the largest number of jobs, 72,200, followed by Houston with 66,300. Two other areas, Boston and Los Angeles, each added more than 44,000 jobs during this period. In contrast, employment was down 25,900 in Atlanta over the year.

Among the 12 metropolitan areas, professional and business services registered the largest employment gains from September a year ago in 6 areas—Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington, while education and health services led in 4 others—Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York.

Government was the largest job loser in six areas—Boston, Detroit, Houston, New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. The public sector job loss was largest in New York, down 29,200 over the year, followed by Philadelphia, down 11,800.

Technical Note

This release presents nonfarm payroll employment estimates from the Current Employment Statistics (CES) program.

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 2007 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 survey, 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 the standards and definitions established by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget dated December 1, 2009. A detailed list of the geographic definitions is available at www.bls.gov/lau/lausmsa.htm.

The Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, Calif. Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) includes Los Angeles and Orange Counties in California.

The Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, Calif. Metropolitan Division (MD) includes Los Angeles County.

The Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, Calif. Metropolitan Division (MD) includes Orange County.

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 from the Internet at www.bls.gov/sae/.  
For personal assistance or further information on the Current Employment Statistics program, as well as other Bureau programs, contact the Western Information Office at 415-625-2270 from 9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. PT.