In July, Bronx County, N.Y., reported the highest unemployment rate in the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, N.Y.-N.J.-Pa. Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), at 13.9 percent, followed by Passaic and Essex Counties, N.J., at 12.0 and 11.6 percent, respectively, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Chief Regional Economist Martin Kohli pointed out that 14 of the 23 counties that make up the metropolitan area had rates that exceeded the U.S. rate of 8.6 percent. (See chart 1.) The area's lowest rates were posted in Rockland County, N.Y. (7.3 percent) and Putnam County, N.Y. (7.1 percent). (See chart 2. 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.).

All but three of the 23 counties in the New York area had higher unemployment rates in July 2012 than one year earlier. (See table 1.) The largest rises occurred in the five counties which make up New York City and in Suffolk County, where the increases ranged from 1.1 to 0.8 percentage points. The unemployment rate was unchanged in three counties, all located in the Newark-Union, N.J.-Pa. Metropolitan Division. In contrast, the national unemployment rate declined 0.7 percentage point over the year. Sixteen of the counties in the New York area had higher jobless rates in July 2012 compared to two years earlier. The largest difference, 1.2 percentage points, occurred in Pike County, Pa., followed by a difference of 0.8 point in Bronx County, N.Y. Jobless rates inched down from July 2010 rates in four New Jersey counties–Sussex, Bergen, Passaic, and Essex–while the July 2012 unemployment rate in the United States was 1.1 percentage points lower over the same period.

Technical Note

This release presents unemployment rate data for states and counties from the Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) program, a federal-state cooperative endeavor.

Definitions. The labor force and unemployment data are based on the same concepts and definitions as those used for the official national estimates obtained from the Current Population Survey (CPS), a sample survey of households that is conducted for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) by the U.S. Census Bureau. The LAUS program measures employment and unemployment on a place-of-residence basis. The universe for each is the civilian noninstitutional population 16 years of age and over. Employed persons are those who did any work at all for pay or profit in the reference week (the week including the 12th of the month) or worked 15 hours or more without pay in a family business or farm, plus those not working who had a job from which they were temporarily absent, whether or not paid, for such reasons as labor-management dispute, illness, or vacation. Unemployed persons are those who were not employed during the reference week (based on the definition above), had actively looked for a job sometime in the 4-week period ending with the reference week, and were currently available for work; persons on layoff expecting recall need not be looking for work to be counted as unemployed. The labor force is the sum of employed and unemployed persons. The unemployment rate is the number of unemployed as a percent of the labor force.

Method of estimation. Estimates for the substate areas in this release are prepared through indirect estimation procedures using a building-block approach. Employment estimates, which are based largely on "place of work" estimates from the Current Employment Statistics (CES) program, are adjusted to refer to place of residence as used in the CPS. Unemployment estimates are aggregates of persons previously employed in industries covered by state unemployment insurance (UI) laws and entrants to the labor force data from the CPS. The substate estimates of employment and unemployment, which geographically exhaust the entire state, are adjusted proportionally to ensure that they add to the independently estimated state or balance-of-state totals. A detailed description of the estimation procedures is available from BLS upon request.

Annual revisions. Labor force and unemployment data for prior years reflect adjustments made at the end of each year. The adjusted estimates reflect updated population data from the U.S. Census Bureau, any revisions in the other data sources, and model reestimation. In most years, historical data for the most recent five years (both seasonally adjusted and not seasonally adjusted) are revised near the beginning of each calendar year, prior to or coincident with the release of January estimates.

Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; TDD message referral phone: (800) 877-8339.

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 New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) consists of New York City, Nassau, Putnam, Rockland, Suffolk, and Westchester Counties in New York; Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Hunterdon, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, and Union Counties in New Jersey; and Pike County, Pennsylvania.

The Edison-New Brunswick Metropolitan Division consists of Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, and Somerset Counties in New Jersey.

The Nassau-Suffolk Metropolitan Division consists of Nassau and Suffolk Counties in New York.

The New York-White Plains-Wayne Metropolitan Division consists of New York City and Westchester, Rockland, and Putnam Counties in New York; and Bergen, Hudson, and Passaic Counties in New Jersey.

The Newark-Union Metropolitan Division consists of Essex, Hunterdon, Morris, Sussex, and Union Counties in New Jersey; and Pike County in Pennsylvania.