Get an economic indicatorPull one of the official U.S. economic statistics by name: the unemployment rate, inflation, the monthly jobs number, average hourly earnings, job openings, the quits rate, the price of a gallon of gas, and forty more. Choose the statistic from a list and the dates you want it for, and there are no codes to look up. Each figure comes back with the month it covers and, if you want them, the changes over the month and the year.
Get series dataPull the published figures for one or more BLS series over a date range. Ask for up to 50 at once and they come back together, which is how you compare two states, two industries or two price indexes in a single step. Use 'Find a series' first if you do not already have the IDs.
Get the latest valueThe newest figure BLS has published for one series, and the period it covers. Use it when a workflow needs today's number and nothing else: a Slack post each morning, a threshold to check, without picking dates.
Get series detailsWhat a series actually measures: its full title, the survey it comes from, whether it is seasonally adjusted, and the area, item or industry it covers. Use it to confirm an ID before building a report on it, or to label a chart.
Get consumer pricesThe Consumer Price Index for one spending category in one place: rent in Chicago, groceries in the Northeast, everything in the U.S. as a whole. This is where inflation comes from: turn on changes over time and the 12-month figure is the inflation rate you see in the news. Both lists come from the Bureau, so every combination they offer is one it publishes.
Get average pricesWhat something actually costs on average, in dollars rather than as an index: a gallon of gas, a dozen eggs, a pound of coffee, a kilowatt hour of electricity. BLS collects these prices in the same survey behind the CPI, nationally and for the larger regions and metro areas.
Get producer pricesThe Producer Price Index: what U.S. producers are paid for what they sell, before anything reaches a shop. Use it to watch input costs: steel, lumber, freight, chemicals, and to see price pressure a few months before it shows up in consumer prices. Choose a commodity group, then the commodity within it.
Get local unemploymentUnemployment where you actually operate: a state, a metro area, a county, or a city of more than 25,000 people. Choose the kind of place first and the list narrows to it: 8,000 areas in all. Beside the unemployment rate you can pull the size of the labor force, how many people are employed, and the participation rate.
Get employment by industryJobs, hours and pay for one industry, nationally: 850 of them, from 'total nonfarm' down to 'semiconductor and electronic component manufacturing'. Pull the number of employees, average hourly earnings, average weekly hours or weekly earnings. This is the survey behind the monthly jobs report, so it is the one to use for hiring trends in your own sector.
Get job openings and turnoverHow many jobs are open, how many people were hired, how many quit and how many were laid off: nationally, by industry, or by state. The quits rate in particular is the standard read on how confident workers feel about leaving. Report it as a rate to compare across industries, or as a count for the raw number.
Adjust an amount for inflationWhat an amount of money from one date is worth at another. Give the amount and the two dates and it comes back converted, with the total change and the average yearly rate behind it. Use it to put an old contract, salary, budget or price into today's money. Worked from the Consumer Price Index, the same way the Bureau's own inflation calculator does it.
Find a seriesSearch a survey for the series that matches what you are after: 'median weekly earnings women', 'manufacturing average weekly hours', 'electricity Boston', and get the ID each of the other actions needs, with the years it covers. Every word has to appear, so adding words narrows the answer. This is the way into the sixty-odd surveys that have no dedicated step of their own.
List popular seriesThe series BLS is asked for most often, with their titles: across everything it publishes, or within one survey. A good first look at what a survey is for, and where most series IDs come from.
List surveysEvery survey BLS publishes through its API: seventy of them, from the Consumer Price Index to the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, with the two-letter code that 'Find a series' takes. Search by name to narrow the list.
Get survey detailsOne survey's full name and what BLS will work out for it: whether it can report net changes, percent changes and annual averages. Worth checking before turning on changes over time, because not every survey publishes both kinds.
