BLS Economic Data Scraper

Pull official U.S. economic indicators (CPI, unemployment, wages, PPI) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics public API. No API key required.

What data does it extract?

Field	Description
seriesId	BLS series identifier (e.g. CUUR0000SA0)
seriesName	Human-readable name (e.g. "Consumer Price Index - All Urban Consumers")
year	Data year
period	BLS period code (M01 = January, M02 = February, etc.)
periodName	Human-readable period name (e.g. "February")
value	The reported value for that period
footnotes	Array of footnote objects with code and text
latest	true if this is the most recent data point

Use cases

• Economic research -- Download CPI or unemployment data for academic papers or reports.
• Inflation tracking -- Monitor Consumer Price Index trends over custom date ranges.
• Salary benchmarking -- Pull average hourly earnings data to compare compensation across years.
• Market analysis -- Feed employment and PPI data into financial models or dashboards.
• Journalism -- Get official government statistics for fact-checking economic claims.

How to use

Get unemployment rate for the last 3 years (default):

{
    "presetSeries": "unemployment"
}

Get CPI data from 2020 to 2025:

{
    "presetSeries": "cpi",
    "startYear": 2020,
    "endYear": 2025
}

Fetch multiple custom series:

{
    "presetSeries": "custom",
    "seriesIds": ["CUUR0000SA0", "LNS14000000", "CES0500000003"],
    "startYear": 2023,
    "endYear": 2026
}

Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
presetSeries	enum	"cpi"	One of: cpi, unemployment, employment, wages, ppi, custom
seriesIds	string[]	[]	Custom BLS series IDs (only used when preset is custom, max 25)
startYear	integer	3 years ago	First year of data to retrieve
endYear	integer	current year	Last year of data to retrieve

Available presets

Preset	Series ID	What it measures
cpi	CUUR0000SA0	Consumer Price Index (All Urban)
unemployment	LNS14000000	Unemployment Rate
employment	CES0000000001	Total Nonfarm Employment
wages	CES0500000003	Average Hourly Earnings (Private)
ppi	WPUFD49104	Producer Price Index (Finished Goods)

Output example

{
    "seriesId": "LNS14000000",
    "seriesName": "Unemployment Rate",
    "year": "2025",
    "period": "M12",
    "periodName": "December",
    "value": "4.1",
    "footnotes": [],
    "latest": true
}

Performance & cost

• A single preset run completes in under 5 seconds (one API call).
• Custom mode with 25 series still runs in a single request -- the BLS API supports batch queries.
• Costs fractions of a cent on Apify since there is no browser involved.

FAQ

Do I need a BLS API key? No. The public API (no key) allows up to 25 series and returns the last 3 years by default. If you need higher limits (50 series, 20 years), register for a free key at data.bls.gov/registrationEngine.

Where can I find series IDs? Browse the full catalog at bls.gov/data. Each dataset page shows the series ID. There are thousands covering prices, employment, productivity, and more.

How often is the data updated? BLS releases most data monthly. CPI is typically released mid-month for the previous month. Employment data comes out on the first Friday of each month.

What's the maximum date range? Without an API key: 3 years. With a free registered key: up to 20 years per request.