BLS Labor Statistics Scraper

Fetch U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) time-series data — employment, unemployment, inflation (CPI), wages, and more — using the free BLS public API v1. No registration or API key required.

What you can scrape

• Employment — Total nonfarm payrolls, private sector, by industry
• Unemployment — Unemployment rate, number unemployed, labor force participation
• Inflation (CPI) — Consumer Price Index (all items, core, food, energy)
• Producer Prices (PPI) — Finished goods index
• Wages — Average hourly and weekly earnings by sector

Input

Field	Type	Description	Default
mode	select	What to fetch (see modes below)	getEmploymentData
seriesIds	string	Comma-separated BLS series IDs (mode=getSeriesData only)	CES0000000001,LNS14000000
startYear	integer	First year to retrieve (1947–2024)	2020
endYear	integer	Last year to retrieve (1947–2024)	2024
maxItems	integer	Max number of data points to emit (1–2000)	500

Modes

Mode	Description
getSeriesData	Fetch one or more BLS series by ID (comma-separated in seriesIds)
getEmploymentData	Preset: nonfarm payrolls + unemployment rate + labor force participation
getInflationData	Preset: CPI-U all items, core CPI, food index, energy index
getWageData	Preset: average hourly & weekly earnings (total private, manufacturing, leisure)

Common BLS Series IDs

Series ID	Description
CES0000000001	Total Nonfarm Employment
LNS14000000	Unemployment Rate
LNS11000000	Labor Force Participation Rate
LNS12000000	Civilian Employment Level
CUUR0000SA0	CPI-U: All Items (Urban Consumers)
CUUR0000SA0L1E	CPI-U: Core (ex food & energy)
CES0500000003	Average Hourly Earnings — Total Private
WPSFD4	PPI: Finished Goods

Output

Each output record represents one data point (typically one month) for one BLS series:

{
  "seriesId": "CES0000000001",
  "seriesName": "Total Nonfarm Employment",
  "year": 2023,
  "period": "M06",
  "periodName": "June",
  "value": "156028",
  "valueNumeric": 156028.0,
  "footnotes": ["Preliminary."],
  "scrapedAt": "2026-06-03T10:00:00+00:00"
}

Field	Type	Description
seriesId	string	BLS series identifier
seriesName	string	Human-readable series name
year	integer	Year of the data point
period	string	BLS period code (e.g. M01 = January, Q01 = Q1)
periodName	string	Human-readable period name
value	string	Data value as returned by BLS
valueNumeric	float	Numeric value for calculations
footnotes	array	Footnote text (e.g. "Preliminary.", "Revised.")
scrapedAt	string	ISO 8601 timestamp of scrape

Data Source

Data is sourced from the BLS Public Data API v1 at https://api.bls.gov/publicAPI/v1/. This is a completely free, publicly accessible API provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. No registration or API key is required.

FAQs

How far back does the data go? BLS data availability varies by series but generally goes back to 1947. The oldest series (like employment) start in the late 1940s.

What is the update frequency? BLS releases monthly reports. The most recent data in the API is typically the prior month, with a 2–4 week lag.

What is a BLS series ID? A series ID is a unique code that identifies a specific economic indicator (e.g. LNS14000000 = unemployment rate). You can find more series IDs at bls.gov/data.

Are there rate limits? The free API v1 allows up to 25 series per request and 500 requests per day. This actor respects those limits automatically.

Can I get seasonally adjusted data? Yes. BLS series IDs starting with S (e.g. CUSR0000SA0) are seasonally adjusted. Series starting with U (e.g. CUUR0000SA0) are unadjusted.

What does "Preliminary" footnote mean? Some data points are marked as preliminary and will be revised in a subsequent release.