# Salary Data by Occupation: BLS Wages by State (`m_ctim/bls-occupation-wage-lookup`) Actor

Look up official U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics wage and employment data for an occupation, nationally or by state, using its SOC code. Annual mean and median wage, hourly wage, and employment counts, straight from the OEWS survey.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/m\_ctim/bls-occupation-wage-lookup.md
- **Developed by:** [Timothy Kelvin](https://apify.com/m_ctim) (community)
- **Categories:** Other
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $5.50 / 1,000 occupation checkeds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## BLS Occupation Wage Lookup: National & State Pay Data

Give it an occupation's SOC code. Get back official U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics wage and employment data, nationally or for a specific state,
straight from the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS)
survey.

### Who this is for

- **HR and recruiting teams** benchmarking a role's compensation against national or state pay data before making an offer.
- **Compensation analysts** building pay bands grounded in official government data instead of self-reported salary sites.
- **Researchers and journalists** covering labor market and wage trends by occupation and state.

### Input

| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `occupations` | array | `[{ "socCode": "15-1252", "stateCode"?: "TX" }]`. `socCode` is the 6-digit Standard Occupational Classification code, find yours at [bls.gov/soc](https://www.bls.gov/soc/). Omit `stateCode` for national data, or use a two-letter USPS code for state-level data. |
| `apiKey` | string (optional) | Free registration key from [bls.gov/developers](https://www.bls.gov/developers/), raises the daily request limit and historical range. Not required for small batches. |

```json
{
  "occupations": [
    { "socCode": "15-1252" },
    { "socCode": "15-1252", "stateCode": "TX" }
  ]
}
```

### Output

One record per occupation lookup:

```json
{
  "socCode": "15-1252",
  "stateCode": null,
  "found": true,
  "annualMeanWage": 148100,
  "employment": 1687890,
  "hourlyMeanWage": 71.2,
  "annualMedianWage": 135980,
  "hourlyMedianWage": 65.38,
  "dataYear": "2025",
  "checkedAt": "2026-09-19T12:00:00.000Z"
}
```

Fields come back as `null` if that specific measure has no data available
for the requested occupation/area combination (common for niche
occupations or small states), `found` is `false` if none of the requested
measures returned data at all.

### How it works

Direct calls to the official BLS Public Data API's OEWS series, no
scraping, no proxy. Each request builds the OEWS series ID for employment,
annual mean wage, annual median wage, hourly mean wage, and hourly median
wage, and fetches all five in one batched call per occupation/area.

**Rate limits:** unregistered use is capped at 25 series requests per day
and 10 years of history. A free registration key (see Input above) raises
that to 500 requests per day with a longer history window.

### Pricing note

Billed per **occupation lookup**, not per wage field returned — one charge
per `socCode`/`stateCode` pair requested, whether all five wage measures
come back populated or several are `null` for that occupation/area.

### Related products

- [US Labor Market Indicator Lookup](https://github.com/timmKal01/us-labor-market-indicator-lookup) — broader BLS labor market indicators, not scoped to a single occupation's pay

# Actor input Schema

## `socCode` (type: `string`):

Leave the Occupations (multiple) field below empty to use this single-lookup shortcut instead. The 6-digit Standard Occupational Classification code, e.g. "15-1252" (find yours at bls.gov/soc).

## `stateCode` (type: `string`):

Two-letter USPS state code for state-level data, e.g. "TX". Omit for national data. Only used together with SOC code above.

## `occupations` (type: `array`):

For looking up several occupations in one run instead of one at a time. One entry per occupation: { "socCode": "15-1252", "stateCode"?: "TX" }. Ignored if SOC code above is filled in.

## `apiKey` (type: `string`):

Optional free registration key from bls.gov/developers, raises the daily request limit and historical range. Not required for small batches.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "socCode": "15-1252",
  "occupations": [
    {
      "socCode": "15-1252"
    }
  ]
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "socCode": "15-1252",
    "occupations": [
        {
            "socCode": "15-1252"
        }
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("m_ctim/bls-occupation-wage-lookup").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "socCode": "15-1252",
    "occupations": [{ "socCode": "15-1252" }],
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("m_ctim/bls-occupation-wage-lookup").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "socCode": "15-1252",
  "occupations": [
    {
      "socCode": "15-1252"
    }
  ]
}' |
apify call m_ctim/bls-occupation-wage-lookup --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,m_ctim/bls-occupation-wage-lookup"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/Mbihpq00JhV9F7VWM/builds/OfZdi7kcXGUUcPial/openapi.json