US Labor Market Demand Monitor

Start with the business outcome: identify where labor demand, wages, and worker availability are changing before committing recruiting resources. The output includes stable series IDs, periods, values, MoM and YoY changes, footnotes, retrieval timestamps, and BLS attribution. Configure a predefined indicator or provide explicit BLS series IDs afterward.

Outcome

Turn official US labor statistics into normalized occupation and regional demand signals with trend changes that support staffing forecasts, pricing, and recruiting-market decisions.

Use cases

• Use the Actor when you need turn official US labor statistics into normalized occupation and regional demand signals with trend changes that support staffing forecasts, pricing, and recruiting-market decisions.
• Build workflows around instead of scraping copyrighted job-board listings, the Actor provides repeatable labor-market intelligence from BLS time series: occupation and industry demand proxies, regional unemployment trends, wage benchmarks, month-over-month and year-over-year changes, anomaly flags, and stable series-level history.
• Designed for Staffing agencies, recruiting firms, workforce consultants, HR software companies, and labor-market analysts.
• Schedule repeat runs: Users rerun weekly or monthly to refresh benchmark series, detect revisions, compare regions, and monitor occupation or industry demand changes over time.
• Feed normalized dataset records into APIs, spreadsheets, databases, automations, or AI/agent workflows.

Quick start

1. Open the Actor input form.
2. Set the filters or query relevant to your workflow.
3. Start with a small maxResults value.
4. Run the Actor and inspect the default dataset before scheduling larger or recurring jobs.

Example input:

{
  "query": "unemployment rate",
  "seriesIds": [
    "LNS14000000",
    "CES0000000001",
    "CES0500000003"
  ],
  "startYear": "2024",
  "endYear": "2025",
  "maxResults": 10
}

Inputs

• query (string, optional) — Human-readable indicator label used to select a predefined BLS series family, such as unemployment rate, total nonfarm employment, average hourly earnings, or labor force participation.
• seriesIds (array, optional) — Optional explicit BLS series IDs. If supplied, these take precedence over the predefined query.
• startYear (string, optional) — Four-digit first year to retrieve.
• endYear (string, optional) — Four-digit final year to retrieve.
• maxResults (integer, optional) — Maximum number of normalized observations returned after filtering and enrichment.

Output example

The example below is taken from the latest validated local live-source sample when available; otherwise it is derived from the bundled dataset schema.

{
  "id": "LNS14000000:2026:M08",
  "seriesId": "LNS14000000",
  "seriesTitle": "Unemployment Rate",
  "year": 2026,
  "period": "M08",
  "periodName": "August",
  "value": 4.1,
  "unit": "percent",
  "monthOverMonthChange": 0.0,
  "yearOverYearChange": -0.2,
  "yearOverYearPercentChange": -4.651163,
  "footnotes": [],
  "retrievedAt": "2026-09-04T14:44:14.268192+00:00",
  "source": "U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics"
}

Pricing

Store pricing is configured in Apify. The intended primary paid unit is normalized labor-market observation. Start with a small result limit while validating your workflow, then scale only when the output and economics fit your use case. The README never hard-codes a price that could drift from the live Store configuration.

Source and limitations

• Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Public Data API.
• Licence/terms: U.S. Government public data; no restrictive end-use control stated in BLS API Terms of Service.
• Reuse condition: BLS states that accessed data should not include controls over end use. Cite BLS and the retrieval date, state that BLS cannot vouch for downstream data or analyses, do not falsely represent or materially misstate BLS content, and do not use the BLS logo without permission. This Actor must sell transformed analysis and normalized indicators rather than implying BLS endorsement.
• Automation condition: Use the unauthenticated Version 1 API within its documented limits: up to 25 series per request, up to 10 years per request, and the published request-rate and daily-query limits. Implement backoff, caching, retries, and source-health checks.
• This is labor-market intelligence rather than a live job-posting scraper, so the product must be positioned around staffing forecasts, benchmarking, and demand monitoring.
• BLS data is published historical or periodic statistical data and may not provide real-time vacancy counts or individual job listings.
• BLS API rate limits and Version 1 query caps constrain large bulk requests; caching and batching are required.
• BLS requires attribution, retrieval dates, accurate representation, and a disclaimer that BLS cannot vouch for downstream analyses.
• Series IDs and metadata can be difficult for end users; a maintained predefined series catalog is essential.

This Actor does not bypass authentication, rate limits, robots/API policies, licensing conditions, or upstream access controls. Missing upstream values are not invented.

FAQ

Does this use the approved source contract?
Yes. Runtime requests are restricted to the source contract validated by Market Hunter before build.

Can I schedule repeat runs?
Yes, when the source permits automated access. Use conservative schedules and result limits that respect upstream conditions.

Why can some fields be empty or null?
The upstream source may omit fields for particular records. The Actor preserves missing values rather than fabricating data.

Troubleshooting

• If a narrow query returns no rows, loosen filters and retry with a small result limit.
• If the upstream source returns a rate-limit or temporary server error, retry later instead of increasing request pressure.
• If authentication or source identity is required, verify the protected credential/identity configured for the Actor.
• If the upstream response schema changes, report the failed run so the deterministic mapping can be updated.

Related Actors

• BLS Wage Benchmark API
• US Unemployment Rate Monitor
• Federal Employment Projection Monitor
• State Labor Market Comparison API

Store publication remains an explicit manual action. This product is not affiliated with or endorsed by the upstream source unless the Store listing explicitly states otherwise.