BLS API - Bureau of Labor Statistics Data

Access Bureau of Labor Statistics data for employment, wages, prices, and productivity. Get unemployment rates, CPI inflation, job openings, wage data by industry and occupation.

Optional key: a free BLS API key raises the daily limits; live mode works without one.

---

Before You Start

The actor fetches real data from the BLS Public Data API by default. A BLS API key is optional. Without one, BLS applies its limits for unregistered calls. A free key from data.bls.gov/registrationEngine raises them.

The prefilled input (get_series for CUUR0000SA0, the Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers) returns the monthly CPI-U index for the last five years. Demo Mode is off by default; turn it on only to preview the output shape with sample rows.

---

Quick Start

Run with real data

{
  "task": "get_series",
  "seriesId": "LNS14000000",
  "startYear": 2024
}

Wages for one occupation in one state

{
  "task": "get_wages",
  "occupation": "15-1252",
  "area": "06"
}

Preview the output shape with sample rows (free)

{
  "task": "get_series",
  "demoMode": true
}

Sample rows carry isSample: true and a note saying they are not BLS data. They are never charged.

---

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Required	Description
task	string	"get_series"	Yes	The operation to perform
apiKey	string	-	No	BLS API key (optional, raises rate limits)
seriesId	string	- (prefilled CUUR0000SA0)	For get_series	BLS series identifier (e.g., CUUR0000SA0, LNS14000000)
startYear	integer	current year minus 4	No	Start year for data range
endYear	integer	current year	No	End year for data range
occupation	string	all occupations	No	get_wages: SOC code, e.g. 15-1252
area	string	United States	No	get_wages: 2-digit state FIPS code, e.g. 06 for California
industry	string	-	No	Not used by the current tasks
limit	integer	100	No	Not used by the current tasks
webhookUrl	string	-	No	URL to receive results via webhook
demoMode	boolean	false	No	Return labeled sample rows instead of calling BLS

---

Tasks and data sources (updated 2026-10-22)

All tasks call the BLS Public Data API v2 (api.bls.gov). Each run returns one row.

• get_series: any BLS series by seriesId. The row has seriesId, a plain label, and a data array of {year, period, periodName, value}; BLS notes come back in messages.
• get_employment: total nonfarm employment, CES0000000001 (thousands, seasonally adjusted).
• get_cpi: CPI-U all items, CUUR0000SA0.
• get_wages: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), all industries, for the SOC code in occupation (all occupations if blank), nationally or for one state (area). Returns employment, hourly and annual mean and median wages from the latest May estimates, with the series id behind each number.
• get_jolts: JOLTS job openings, JTS000000000000000JOL.
• get_ppi: PPI final demand, WPUFD4.
• get_productivity: nonfarm business labor productivity, PRS85006092.
• get_injuries: Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII), total recordable cases per 100 full-time workers, private industry, ISU00000000031100 (annual).

---

Pricing

Event	When it is charged	Price
Actor start	Once when the run starts, one event per GB of memory (minimum one). At the default 256 MB of memory that is $0.10 per run	$0.10 per GB
Get BLS Series	Retrieve any BLS time series by series ID. Access unemployment, CPI, employment, and other economic indicators	$0.01
Get Employment Data	Employment statistics by industry and geographic area. Track job growth, payroll data, and sector trends	$0.01
Get CPI Data	Consumer Price Index inflation data. Monitor price changes for goods and services across categories	$0.01
Get Wage Data	Wage and salary data by occupation and industry. Essential for compensation benchmarking and labor market analysis	$0.01
Get JOLTS Data	Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey data. Track job openings, hires, separations, and quit rates	$0.01
Get PPI Data	Producer Price Index data. Monitor wholesale price changes and input cost trends by industry	$0.01
Get Productivity Data	Labor productivity statistics by sector. Analyze output per hour and unit labor cost trends	$0.01
Get Injury Data	Workplace injury and illness statistics by industry. Track safety metrics and incident rates	$0.01
Result	Each item written to the default dataset	$0.00001

Each successful live call charges one event named after the task you ran, $0.01 per call, plus the standard Actor start fee ($0.10 per GB of memory, minimum one) and $0.00001 per dataset row. No task event is charged for Demo Mode runs, calls that fail or return an error row (for example a missing series id or a BLS limit message), and calls that return no rows.

---

Troubleshooting

"Series ID required"

get_series needs a seriesId, for example CUUR0000SA0. This error row is not charged.

"REQUEST_NOT_PROCESSED" or a daily threshold message

BLS limits unregistered calls per day. Add a free BLS API key in apiKey.

"BLS has no OEWS estimates for SOC ..."

The SOC code is not published for that area. Check the code at bls.gov/oes.

No results or empty data array

Check the messages field and the run log. Most often the series id does not exist or has no data in the year range.

---

Built by John Rippy | Actor Arsenal