BLS Labor Statistics Scraper

Extract Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) time series data including unemployment rates, CPI inflation, employment numbers, and average wages. Search by series ID and date range to get monthly and annual economic indicators used by economists, investors, and policymakers worldwide.

Disclaimer: This actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics or the U.S. Department of Labor.

What BLS labor data can you extract?

This actor wraps the free BLS Public Data API to extract time series economic data. Common data series include:

• Unemployment rate (LNS14000000) — monthly national unemployment percentage
• Total nonfarm employment (CES0000000001) — total jobs in the economy
• CPI-U All Items (CUUR0000SA0) — Consumer Price Index for inflation tracking
• Average hourly earnings (CES0500000003) — private sector wage data
• Civilian labor force (LNS11000000) — total labor force participation
• Job openings rate (JTS000000000000000JOR) — JOLTS job openings data

The BLS publishes thousands of time series covering employment, wages, prices, productivity, and more.

Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
Series IDs	string	Comma-separated BLS series IDs (e.g., LNS14000000, CUUR0000SA0)
Start Year	string	Start year in YYYY format (e.g., 2024)
End Year	string	End year in YYYY format (e.g., 2025)
Max Results	integer	Maximum data points to return (1–5,000, default 100)

Output example

Each data point in the output contains:

{
    "seriesId": "LNS14000000",
    "seriesName": "Unemployment Rate",
    "year": "2025",
    "period": "M12",
    "periodName": "December",
    "value": "4.4",
    "footnotes": null,
    "source": "Bureau of Labor Statistics",
    "sourceUrl": "https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000"
}

How much does it cost to scrape BLS data?

This actor uses pay-per-event pricing. You pay per data point returned.

• $0.00005 per actor start (Apify default)
• Per-result charge based on the number of data points extracted
• No proxy costs — the BLS API is free and public

A typical query for 3 series over 2 years returns ~72 data points at minimal cost.

Tip: Use fewer series IDs and narrower date ranges to control costs.

Who uses BLS labor statistics data?

• Economists — track employment trends, inflation, and labor market health for research and forecasting
• Financial analysts — monitor CPI and wage data to inform investment decisions and market analysis
• Journalists — report on jobs numbers, unemployment trends, and economic indicators
• Real estate analysts — correlate employment and wage data with housing market trends
• HR and compensation teams — benchmark salaries against BLS wage data by industry and region
• Policy researchers — analyze labor force participation, productivity, and economic policy impacts

Tips for best results

• Find series IDs at the BLS Data Finder: https://data.bls.gov/dataQuery/find — search by topic to discover the exact series you need.
• The API limits 10 series per request. This actor handles batching automatically — just provide all the series IDs you need.
• Without a registration key, BLS allows 25 requests/day. This actor is optimized to minimize API calls.
• Values are strings in the BLS API. Numeric values like "4.4" for unemployment rate or "159000" for employment are returned as-is from BLS.
• Period codes: M01-M12 = monthly, Q01-Q05 = quarterly, A01 = annual, S01-S03 = semi-annual.

Integrations

Export your data as JSON, CSV, or Excel. Schedule runs to track economic indicators monthly. Use webhooks to trigger alerts when new BLS data is released.

This actor works as an MCP server — AI agents can discover and use it to access BLS labor statistics programmatically.