BLS Labor Market MCP

Type: Apify MCP Actor (TypeScript)
Purpose: AI agent access to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) employment, unemployment, wage, CPI, and labor force data via the BLS Public Data API v2
Stack: Apify SDK, Node.js >=20, MCP protocol, standby mode, PPE billing

Overview

The BLS Labor Market MCP provides AI agents with structured access to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' vast economic datasets. It wraps the free BLS Public Data API v2 (registration required for higher rate limits) and exposes five operational tools via the MCP protocol.

API Key: Set BLS_API_KEY in your Apify Actor environment variables for best performance. Without a key, the free tier is limited. Get your key free at data.bls.gov/registrationEngine.

Tools

Tool	Description	PPE
getEmploymentData	Nonfarm payrolls (NFP), employment level, labor force participation — national, state, or county	$0.03
getUnemploymentRate	Official U-3 unemployment rate, or U-5/U-6 broader measures — national, state, metro	$0.02
getWageData	Average Hourly Earnings (AHE), Employment Cost Index (ECI), weekly wages	$0.03
getCPI	CPI-U all items, core, food, energy, shelter, transportation —NSA or SA	$0.03
getLaborForce	Labor force participation rate, employment-population ratio, labor force levels	$0.03

Quick Start

# Local development
cd ~/Projects/apify-actors/bls-labor-market-mcp
apify run

# Deploy to Apify
apify push

Input Schema

Tools are called via MCP JSON-RPC over HTTP POST to /mcp. Example:

{
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "getUnemploymentRate",
    "arguments": {
      "state": "CA",
      "startYear": 2022,
      "endYear": 2024
    }
  }
}

All tools accept optional startYear and endYear (default: 2020 → current year).

getEmploymentData

{
  "seriesId": "LNS12000000",
  "startYear": 2022,
  "endYear": 2024,
  "state": "CA"
}

seriesId defaults to overall civilian employment level. Common series:

• LNS12000000 — Employment level
• LNS13000000 — Unemployed level
• LNS12300000 — Employment-population ratio

getUnemploymentRate

{
  "state": "NY",
  "startYear": 2022,
  "endYear": 2024,
  "measure": "U3"
}

measure options: U3 (official, default), U5, U6 (broadest). Omit state for national.

getWageData

{
  "seriesId": "CES0500000013",
  "startYear": 2022,
  "endYear": 2024,
  "state": "TX",
  "measure": "hourly"
}

seriesId defaults to national average hourly earnings. Common series:

• CES0500000013 — Total private AHE
• CES3000000013 — Manufacturing AHE
• CES6500000013 — Education & Health AHE

getCPI

{
  "seriesId": "CUUR0000SA0",
  "startYear": 2022,
  "endYear": 2024,
  "seasonallyAdjusted": true
}

seriesId defaults to CPI-U all items. Common series:

• CUUR0000SA0 — CPI-U all items (1982-84=100)
• CUUR0000SAF1 — CPI-U food
• CUUR0000SAE1 — CPI-U energy
• CUUR0000SAH1 — CPI-U shelter

getLaborForce

{
  "state": null,
  "demographic": "gender",
  "startYear": 2022,
  "endYear": 2024,
  "measure": "participation"
}

measure: participation (LFPR, default), employment (EMP-POP ratio), labor_force (LF level).
demographic: age, gender, race, education, or null for total.

Architecture

• Standby MCP: Server listens on /mcp (JSON-RPC over HTTP POST). Health probe at /.
• BLS API v2: REST POST to https://api.bls.gov/publicAPI/v2/timeseries/data/
• Rate limiting: 1.1s gap between requests (BLS recommends ≤1 req/sec)
• ERROR_RETRY: Retries on HTTP 429, 500, 502, 503, 504 with exponential backoff (base 2s, max 3 retries)
• PPE charging: Actor.charge() called after each successful tool call
• State FIPS mapping: Accepts abbreviations (CA) or numeric FIPS (06)

Environment Variables

Variable	Required	Description
BLS_API_KEY	Recommended	BLS API v2 registration key (free). Without it, rate limits are lower.
APIFY_META_ORIGIN	System	Set to STANDBY by Apify when in standby mode
APIFY_STANDBY_PORT	Optional	Override the HTTP server port (default: 3000)

BLS Series Reference

Employment Situation (Current Population Survey — CPS)

Series ID	Description
LNS12000000	Employment Level (thousands)
LNS13000000	Unemployed Level (thousands)
LNS11000000	Labor Force Level (thousands)
LNS11300000	Labor Force Participation Rate (%)
LNS12300000	Employment-Population Ratio (%)
LNS14000000	Unemployment Rate (%)

Average Hourly Earnings (CES)

Series ID	Description
CES0500000013	Total Private — Average Hourly Earnings ($)
CES0600000013	Goods-Producing — AHE ($)
CES3000000013	Manufacturing — AHE ($)
CES4200000013	Retail Trade — AHE ($)
CES6500000013	Education & Health — AHE ($)
CES9100000013	Government — AHE ($)

CPI-U

Series ID	Description
CUUR0000SA0	All Items (1982-84=100)
CUUR0000SAF1	Food
CUUR0000SAE1	Energy
CUUR0000SAH1	Shelter
CUUR0000SAM1	Medical Care
CUUR0000SAT1	Transportation

Employment Cost Index

Series ID	Description
CIU2020000000000	Employment Cost Index — Wages & Salaries
CIU1010000000000	Employment Cost Index — Total Benefits

License

MIT