BLS Economic Data - CPI Inflation, Unemployment, Jobs, Wages & Labor Statistics

Access Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) economic time series data without writing a single line of code. Pull CPI inflation, unemployment rates, nonfarm employment, average hourly earnings, JOLTS job openings, Producer Price Index, labor force participation, and weekly earnings — at the national or state level — and export directly to JSON, CSV, or Excel.

Data is sourced directly from the official BLS public API. No API key required.

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Output Fields

Field	Type	Description
seriesId	string	BLS series ID (e.g. LNS14000000)
indicator	string	Human-readable indicator name
year	string	Year of observation
periodName	string	Month or quarter name (e.g. January)
value	string	Observed value

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Use Cases

• Economic research and modeling — Pull monthly CPI or unemployment time series for forecasting models or dashboards.
• Financial reporting — Embed current inflation and wage data into investor reports or earnings commentary.
• HR and compensation benchmarking — Compare average hourly earnings trends nationally or by state before setting pay ranges.
• Journalism and policy analysis — Track labor market conditions over time with official government data.
• State-level workforce analysis — Get unemployment or nonfarm employment by state for site selection, workforce planning, or grant applications.

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How to Use

Select an indicator and set the year range. For state-level data (unemployment rate or nonfarm employment), provide the state name. To query any BLS series directly, choose custom and enter the series ID.

Example input — national unemployment rate, 2022–2024:

{
  "indicator": "unemployment_rate",
  "state": "",
  "startYear": 2022,
  "endYear": 2024,
  "maxResults": 100
}

Example input — California nonfarm employment:

{
  "indicator": "nonfarm_employment",
  "state": "California",
  "startYear": 2023,
  "endYear": 2025,
  "maxResults": 50
}

Example input — custom BLS series:

{
  "indicator": "custom",
  "seriesId": "CUUR0000SA0",
  "startYear": 2020,
  "endYear": 2025,
  "maxResults": 200
}

Available Indicators

Value	Description
unemployment_rate	Unemployment rate (national or by state)
cpi	Consumer Price Index, All Items (CPI-U)
nonfarm_employment	Total nonfarm payroll employment
average_hourly_earnings	Average hourly earnings, private sector
job_openings	Job openings (JOLTS)
producer_price_index	Producer Price Index, Final Demand
labor_force_participation	Labor force participation rate
weekly_earnings	Median usual weekly earnings
custom	Any BLS series ID (enter in seriesId)

Find custom series IDs at data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/browse.do.

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Cost

Approximately $0.10 per run (platform start fee) plus minimal compute. A typical run returning 100 data points completes in under 10 seconds.

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Output Formats

Results are available as JSON, CSV, and Excel from the Apify dataset interface. Use the API to integrate directly with your pipeline.

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FAQ

Does this require a BLS API key? No. The actor uses the BLS public API, which requires no authentication.

How far back does the data go? Most series go back to 2000 or earlier. BLS has data as far back as 1947 for some indicators.

Can I get state-level data for all states? Yes, for unemployment rate and nonfarm employment. Set state to the full state name (e.g. Texas). Leave it empty for national data.

What is a BLS series ID? A unique code that identifies a specific data series, such as LNS14000000 for the national unemployment rate. Use the custom indicator to query any valid series ID.

How often is BLS data updated? BLS publishes most series monthly, typically on a fixed schedule. The data this actor retrieves reflects whatever BLS has published as of the run date.