U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Mountain-Plains Information Office

Total nonfarm employment for the Kansas City, Mo.-Ks., Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) stood at 973,300 in February 2012, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today, up 14,200 over the year. Regional Commissioner Stanley W. Suchman noted that Kansas City's rate of employment growth, 1.5 percent, was similar to the 1.6 percent for the nation over the 12-month period.

The Kansas City metropolitan area is comprised of two separately identifiable employment centers—the Missouri portion and the Kansas portion of the MSA. The Missouri portion, which had 56 percent of the area's workforce, added 4,800 jobs (0.9 percent) over the year. The Kansas portion, with 44 percent of the area's workforce, gained 9,400 jobs (2.2 percent) and accounted for about two-thirds of the MSA's employment growth. (See chart 1 and table 1; Technical Note at end of release contains metropolitan area definitions. Data in this release are not seasonally adjusted; accordingly, analysis is based on over-the-year comparisons.)

In the Kansas City metropolitan area, professional and business services experienced the largest increase in employment, adding 6,500 jobs from February 2011 to February 2012. The Kansas portion of the MSA gained 4,900 jobs in professional and business services, more than three times the number of jobs added in the Missouri portion (1,600). This supersector's rate of job growth of 4.4 percent in the metropolitan area outpaced the respective national gain of 3.7 percent.

Leisure and hospitality registered the second largest expansion of employment in the Kansas City area, up 4,700 from February a year ago. The job growth for this supersector was led by the Kansas side of the MSA with the addition of 2,900 jobs. Manufacturing employment rose by 3,000 over the year, as the Kansas portion added 1,800 manufacturing jobs and the Missouri portion gained 1,200. The Kansas City area's rates of job growth in both of these supersectors were at least twice the respective national rates. Leisure and hospitality employment grew 5.4 percent in Kansas City compared to 2.7 percent for the nation; local manufacturing employment was 4.1 percent higher while the national growth rate was 2.0 percent.

Two additional supersectors expanded by over 1,000 jobs from February 2011. Education and health services gained 1,700 jobs. Job growth for this supersector was heavily concentrated on the Missouri side of the MSA with the addition of 1,400 jobs. Employment in trade, transportation, and utilities rose by 1,200 as the Missouri portion of the area added 1,000 jobs over the year. Nationally, employment in education and health services (2.4 percent) and trade, transportation, and utilities (1.5 percent) grew at a faster pace than it did locally (1.3 and 0.6 percent, respectively).

Over the year, two supersectors in the Kansas City metropolitan area registered declines of more than 1,000 jobs. The information and government supersectors each shed 1,200 jobs with the losses for each supersector equally distributed between the two portions of the area. The local rate of job loss in information (-4.2 percent) far outpaced the national rate of -1.7 percent. However, the decline in government employment locally (-0.8 percent) was similar to the national rate (-0.9 percent).

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 which 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 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 which 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 are also 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 special 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 for state CES data at the supersector level are available on the BLS Web site at www.bls.gov/sae/790stderr.htm. Information on recent benchmark revisions for states is available 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 the geographic definitions is available at www.bls.gov/lau/lausmsa.htm.

The Kansas City, Mo.-Ks. Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) includes Bates, Caldwell, Cass, Clay, Clinton, Jackson, Lafayette, Platte, and Ray Counties in Missouri; Franklin, Johnson, Leavenworth, Linn, Miami, and Wyandotte Counties in Kansas.

• The Kansas City, Mo. portion includes Bates, Caldwell, Cass, Clay, Clinton, Jackson, Lafayette, Platte, and Ray Counties in Missouri.
• The Kansas City, Ks. portion includes Franklin, Johnson, Leavenworth, Linn, Miami, and Wyandotte Counties in Kansas.

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 on line 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/.

For personal assistance or further information on the Current Employment Statistics program, as well as other Bureau programs, contact the Mountain-Plains BLS information office at (816) 285-7000 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. CT.