“Employment” is estimated using a survey of businesses, and measures the number of jobs in a particular market. In contrast, the unemployment rate is estimated through a survey of households. People in the survey are classified as either “employed”, “unemployed”, or “out of the labor force”, meaning that they are neither working nor actively looking for work.
The employment figure for a market may differ from the Number of People Employed for several reasons. First, the Employment survey is measured based on where the business is located, while the household survey is based on the location of the household. For example, if someone lives in Lawrence, but works in Kansas City, they will show up in the Employment statistics for Kansas City, but the Number of People Employed for Lawrence. Second, a person that works two jobs would show up twice in the Employment data, but only once in the Number of People Employed figures. Finally, figures are only estimates, and are subject to some statistical error.
