Total nonfarm employment in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Statistical Area stood at 2,943,800 in October 2011, up 48,800 over the year, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. During the previous 12 months, nonfarm employment rose 1.7 percent in the local area compared to 1.1 percent nationwide. Regional Commissioner Stanley W. Suchman noted that this was the 17th consecutive month of over-the-year job gains following 19 months of over-the-year losses in the Dallas- Fort Worth-Arlington area. (See chart 1 and table 1; Technical Note at end of release contains 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 is comprised of two metropolitan divisions – separately identifiable employment centers within the larger metropolitan area. The Dallas-Plano-Irving Metropolitan Division added 32,400 jobs from October a year ago, a gain of 1.6 percent. The Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Division, which accounted for 29 percent of the area's workforce, provided 34 percent of the area’s growth with the addition of 16,400 jobs during the 12-month period, a 1.9-percent increase.

Industry employment

The professional and business services supersector added 20,100 jobs from October 2010 to October 2011 in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metropolitan area. Job growth in this industry was strong in both metropolitan divisions as Fort Worth-Arlington added jobs at a 6.7-percent pace, more than twice the national growth rate of 3.2 percent, and Dallas-Plano-Irving experienced an increase of 4.0 percent. (See table 1 and chart 2.)

The metropolitan area’s largest supersector – trade, transportation, and utilities – added 15,400 jobs over the year, an increase of 2.6 percent, double the nationwide rate of gain of 1.3 percent. Though job growth in retail trade (7,300) accounted for the largest part of the local industry’s expansion, employment gains in the two other major components of transportation, warehousing, and utilities (4,300) and wholesale trade (3,800) also contributed.

Jobs in the financial activities supersector were up 10,400 from October 2010, making this the 14th consecutive month of over-the-year job growth. The Dallas area’s 4.5-percent rate of gain in financial activities was in sharp contrast to the industry’s nationwide decline of 0.1 percent. Local expansion for financial activities was concentrated in the Dallas-Plano-Irving division, which gained 9,900 jobs during the period accounting for 95 percent of its growth in the area.

Other industries recording employment advances from October a year ago were leisure and hospitality (6,600), education and health services (4,700), and manufacturing (1,600). Though all three supersectors added jobs, only leisure and hospitality expanded at a rate above the national average, 2.3 and 1.6 percent, respectively. On the other hand, local employment in education and health services experienced its slowest rate of growth since June 2004, 1.3 percent. Also of note, October marked the second consecutive month of annual increase for the manufacturing sector, following more than 48 months of annual declines.

Among the remaining industries in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metropolitan area, three experienced employment decreases from October a year ago, the largest occurring in government, down 4,700 or 1.2 percent. The decline in public sector employment was concentrated in the Fort Worth-Arlington division, which lost 4,800 jobs in local government alone. Nationwide, public sector employment fell 1.3 percent.

The local information supersector had the second largest employment decline dropping 4,000 jobs from the previous October, a decrease of 5.1 percent. Nationally, this industry lost jobs at a slower pace, down 1.6 percent. Employment in the local mining, logging, and construction sector fell 1,800 from October 2010. The 1.1-percent decline was the industry’s first annual employment loss after 12 consecutive months of over-the-year gains.

Employment in the 12 largest metropolitan areas

Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington was 1 of the nation’s 12 largest metropolitan statistical areas in October 2011. Ten of these areas experienced over-the-year job gains during the period, with four – Houston, Boston, Dallas, and Miami – registering rates of job growth above the 1.1-percent national average. Six other areas recorded annual growth rates ranging from 1.0 to 0.1 percent. Atlanta experienced the largest percentage decline in jobs, down 1.0 percent.(See chart 3 and table 2.)

Of the ten areas experiencing employment increases from the previous October, Houston added the largest number of jobs, 79,500, while two others, Dallas and Boston, expanded by more than 45,000. Five other areas added at least 15,000 jobs. In contrast, Atlanta lost 22,100 jobs and Philadelphia, 3,300, during this 12-month period.

Among the 12 metropolitan areas, professional and business services was a major source of job growth from October 2010 to October 2011. This supersector registered the largest over-the-year employment gain in nine areas – Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington. In the three remaining areas of Detroit, Los Angeles, and Miami, professional and business services was the second largest job gainer during the 12-month period.

Government experienced the largest loss of jobs in seven areas – Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, New York, and Philadelphia. The decline in public sector employment was largest in New York, down 29,200 from October a year ago, followed by Philadelphia, down 11,500.

Additional information

For personal assistance or further information on the Current Employment Statistics program, as well as other Bureau programs, contact the Southwest Information Office at 972-850-4800 from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: 202-691-5200; TDD message referral phone: 1-800-877-8339.

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.

Employment definition. 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 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 the standards and definitions established by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget on November 20, 2008. A detailed list of geographic definitions is available at www.bls.gov/lau/lausmsa.htm.

• The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) includes Collin, Dallas, Delta, Denton, Ellis, Hunt, Johnson, Kaufman, Parker, Rockwall, Tarrant, and Wise Counties in Texas.



• The Dallas-Plano-Irving Metropolitan Division (MD) includes Collin, Dallas, Delta, Denton, Ellis, Hunt, Kaufman, and Rockwall Counties in Texas.



• The Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Division (MD) includes Johnson, Parker, Tarrant, and Wise Counties in Texas.

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