BLS Employment Data

BLS Employment Data

BLS provides employment, unemployment, wages, prices, and productivity data. Key series: LNS14000000 (unemployment rate), CUUR0000SA0 (CPI-U), CEU0000000001 (total nonfarm employment). V2 API requires registration key. POST requests with series IDs and year range. Supports multiple series per request. 500 queries/day limit.

Data Model

• Time series — identified by series ID (e.g. LNS14000000). Each series has a survey, seasonal adjustment, and data type encoded in the ID.
• Data points — year, period (M01-M12 for monthly, Q01-Q05 for quarterly, A01 for annual), value, and footnotes.
• Catalogs — series metadata including title, survey name, and area.

Gotchas

• POST only — V2 API uses POST for data queries with JSON body containing seriesid array, startyear, and endyear.
• Registration key — goes in the JSON request body as registrationkey, not as a query parameter or header.
• Rate limit — 500 queries per day with a registered key, 25/day without.
• Year range — max 20 years per request with a key, 10 years without.
• Multiple series — up to 50 series IDs per request.