Total nonfarm employment in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Statistical Area stood at 3,616,100 in May 2017, up 115,800 over the year, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. From May 2016 to May 2017, local nonfarm employment rose 3.3 percent, above the national increase of 1.5 percent. Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Stanley W. Suchman noted that among the 12 largest metropolitan areas in the country, Dallas ranked first in the rate of job growth and second in the number of jobs added. (See chart 1 and table 1; the Technical Note at the end of this release contains the metropolitan area definitions. All data in this release are not seasonally adjusted; accordingly, over-the-year analysis is used throughout.)

The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Statistical Area consists of two metropolitan divisions – separately identifiable employment centers within the larger metropolitan area. The Dallas-Plano-Irving Metropolitan Division, which accounted for 71 percent of the area’s workforce, added 90,400 jobs from May a year ago, an increase of 3.6 percent. The Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Division, which accounted for the remaining 29 percent of the area’s workforce, added 25,400 jobs during the 12-month period, a gain of 2.5 percent.

Industry employment

Professional and business services added 31,500 jobs in the local area from May 2016 to May 2017, a 5.5-percent increase and the largest gain of any local supersector. (See table 1 and chart 2. Nearly all of the increase was in the Dallas-Plano-Irving metropolitan division, which added 30,700 jobs. Nationwide, employment in the professional and business services supersector rose at a rate of 3.1 percent over the year.

Trade, transportation, and utilities, the metropolitan area’s largest supersector, added the second-largest number of jobs, up 23,300 from May 2016. The 3.2-percent local rate of job growth was well above the national gain of 0.5 percent. Locally, employment rose in each of the three industry subsectors, led by an increase of 9,200 jobs in transportation, warehousing, and utilities, a 5.1-percent rate of gain. Wholesale trade added 7,500 jobs and retail trade added 6,600 jobs.

Employment in the area’s leisure and hospitality supersector rose by 18,200 over the year, with the majority of the job gain in the sector’s largest industry, food services and drinking places (+13,400). The rate of job growth in the Dallas metropolitan area, at 4.9 percent, was more than double the nationwide advance of 2.1 percent.

Employment in education and health services rose by 13,900 in the Dallas area from May 2016. The local area’s 3.2-percent rate of job growth compared to the national rate of 2.3 percent. Employment increased in both metropolitan divisions as Dallas-Plano-Irving added 8,500 jobs and Fort Worth-Arlington added 5,400, producing annual growth rates of 2.8 percent and 4.1 percent, respectively.

The local financial activities supersector added 10,000 jobs from May 2016, a 3.6-percent increase; nationally, the rate of job growth was 2.0 percent. Both metropolitan divisions added jobs, 7,800 in Dallas-Plano-Irving and 2,200 in Fort Worth-Arlington. Job growth was particularly strong in the Dallas-Plano-Irving real estate and rental and leasing industry, which rose by 3,600, a 6.6-percent increase.

Government employment in the metropolitan area increased by 9,400 from May 2016 to May 2017. The 2.2-percent rate of local job growth compared to the 0.4-percent gain nationally. Local government was responsible for adding 7,100 jobs or three-fourths of the area’s government employment increase.

Three local supersectors added between 4,500 and 2,900 jobs from May 2016: other services; manufacturing; and mining logging and construction.

Employment in the 12 largest metropolitan areas

Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington was 1 of the nation’s 12 largest metropolitan statistical areas in May 2017. All 12 areas had over-the-year job growth during the period, with the rates of job growth in 8 areas exceeding the national increase of 1.5 percent. Dallas had the fastest rate of job growth, 3.3 percent, followed by Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell at 3.1 percent. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin and Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim had the slowest rates of job growth at 0.7 and 1.0 percent, respectively. (See chart 3 and table 2.)

New York-Newark-Jersey City added the largest number of jobs over the year, 151,500, followed by Dallas (+115,800) and Atlanta (+81,900). Chicago had the smallest employment gain over the year, adding 34,400 jobs. Annual job gains in six metropolitan areas ranged from 48,300 to 45,000.

Over the year, education and health services added the most jobs in five areas: Boston-Cambridge-Nashua, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, and San Francisco. Professional and business services was the largest job producer in five other areas: Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, and Washington-Arlington-Alexandria.

Manufacturing lost the most jobs over the year in four areas: Boston, Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia. Atlanta and San Francisco had no annual job losses in any supersector.

Metropolitan area employment data for June 2017 are scheduled to be released on Friday, July 21, 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 levels 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 delineations issued by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget on February 28, 2013. A detailed list of the geographic definitions is available online at www.bls.gov/lau/lausmsa.htm.

The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Hood, Hunt, Johnson, Kaufman, Parker, Rockwall, Somervell, Tarrant, and Wise Counties in Texas.

• The Dallas-Plano-Irving Metropolitan Division includes Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Hunt, Kaufman, and Rockwall Counties in Texas.
• The Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Division includes Hood, Johnson, Parker, Somervell, Tarrant, and Wise 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 CES program are also available in the above mentioned news releases and from the BLS website 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.