Total nonfarm employment in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Statistical Area stood at 3,043,000 in January 2013, up 109,400 over the year, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Stanley W. Suchman noted that during the previous 12 months, nonfarm employment rose 3.7 percent in the local area compared to 1.5 percent nationwide. (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 professional and business services supersector gained the largest number of jobs in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metropolitan area, adding 23,900 from January 2012 to January 2013. Growth in this industry was strong in the two metropolitan divisions as Fort Worth-Arlington registered a 5.5-percent increase and Dallas-Plano-Irving, a 5.2-percent increase, both well above the national rate of 2.7 percent. (See table 1 and chart 2.)

The leisure and hospitality supersector added 21,000 jobs over the year. Local expansion in this industry was strong in both metropolitan divisions as Fort Worth-Arlington added jobs at a 9.0-percent pace, more than three times the national growth rate of 2.7 percent, and Dallas-Plano-Irving experienced an increase of 6.7 percent.

Three other local industries recorded employment gains of at least 15,000 in the Dallas area from January 2012: trade, transportation and utilities; education and health services; and mining, logging, and construction. The metropolitan area’s largest supersector – trade, transportation, and utilities – added 18,200 jobs over the year. The local 3.0-percent rate of gain in this industry was well above the 1.7-percent increase nationwide. Locally, wholesale trade (9,100) and retail trade (6,000) accounted for the largest part of the industry’s job gain. The education and health services supersector added 17,800 jobs over the year, an increase of 4.8 percent, more than double the national average of 2.0 percent. The local mining, logging, and construction sector added 15,600 jobs during the period, an increase of 9.8 percent.

Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington was 1 of the nation’s 12 largest metropolitan statistical areas in January 2013. All of these areas experienced over-the-year job growth during the period, with eight exceeding the national average of 1.5 percent. The fastest rate of job growth was registered in Houston, up 4.5 percent, three times the national rate of gain. The slowest rate of expansion occurred in Detroit, up 0.3 percent. (See chart 3 and table 2.)

The New York area added the largest number of jobs, 153,000, from January 2012. Houston, Dallas, and Los Angeles all registered job gains numbering between 100,000 and 120,000. Employment in San Francisco, Atlanta, and Chicago expanded by more than 50,000. Only Detroit had an employment increase of less than 5,000 over the year.

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.