Bureau of Labor Statistics

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is the principal federal statistical agency responsible for measuring labor market activity, working conditions, price changes, and productivity in the U.S. economy. BLS operates the Public Data API at api.bls.gov, providing programmatic JSON access to published historical time series across more than 75 surveys — including the Consumer Price Index (CPI), Producer Price Index (PPI), Employment Situation (CES), Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS), Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), Employment Cost Index (ECI), Productivity, Import/Export Price Indexes, and Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI). Version 1 is open without registration; Version 2 requires a free registration key and provides higher daily limits, more series per request, longer year ranges, catalog metadata, statistical calculations, and annual averages.

1 APIs 0 Features

Federal GovernmentLabor StatisticsEconomic DataConsumer Price IndexProducer Price IndexEmploymentUnemploymentWagesProductivityOpen DataTime Series

Sources

opencollection: 1.0.0
info:
  name: BLS Public Data API
  version: '2.0'
items:
- info:
    name: Time Series
    type: folder
  items:
  - info:
      name: Get Multiple Time Series Data
      type: http
    http:
      method: POST
      url: https://api.bls.gov/publicAPI/v2/timeseries/data/
      body:
        type: json
        data: '{}'
    docs: Retrieve time series data for one or more BLS series IDs. Version 2 supports up to 50 series per request, date range
      filtering, optional calculations (net change, percent change), annual averages, and catalog descriptions. Requires a
      registered API key in the request body.
  - info:
      name: Get Single Time Series Data
      type: http
    http:
      method: GET
      url: https://api.bls.gov/publicAPI/v2/timeseries/data/:seriesId
      params:
      - name: seriesId
        value: LNS14000000
        type: path
        description: The BLS series identifier (e.g., LNS14000000 for national unemployment rate, CUUR0000SA0 for CPI-U All
          Items)
      - name: registrationkey
        value: ''
        type: query
        description: Your registered BLS API key (required for v2 higher limits)
      - name: startyear
        value: '2020'
        type: query
        description: Beginning year for data range (4-digit year)
      - name: endyear
        value: '2024'
        type: query
        description: Ending year for data range (4-digit year)
      - name: catalog
        value: ''
        type: query
        description: Include series catalog/description information in response (v2 only)
      - name: calculations
        value: ''
        type: query
        description: Include net change and percent change calculations (v2 only)
      - name: annualaverage
        value: ''
        type: query
        description: Include annual average values (v2 only)
    docs: Retrieve time series data for a single BLS series ID using a GET request. This endpoint works with both v1 and v2.
      For v2, include the registration key as a query parameter for higher limits.
- info:
    name: Surveys
    type: folder
  items:
  - info:
      name: List All BLS Surveys
      type: http
    http:
      method: GET
      url: https://api.bls.gov/publicAPI/v2/surveys
      params:
      - name: registrationkey
        value: ''
        type: query
        description: Your registered BLS API key
    docs: Returns a list of all BLS surveys with their abbreviations, names, and metadata. Use this endpoint to discover available
      survey types and their associated series prefixes.
  - info:
      name: Get Survey Details
      type: http
    http:
      method: GET
      url: https://api.bls.gov/publicAPI/v2/surveys/:surveyAbbreviation
      params:
      - name: surveyAbbreviation
        value: CU
        type: path
        description: The BLS survey abbreviation code (e.g., CU, LN, CE)
      - name: registrationkey
        value: ''
        type: query
        description: Your registered BLS API key
    docs: Returns metadata and information for a specific BLS survey identified by its abbreviation code.
- info:
    name: Popular Series
    type: folder
  items:
  - info:
      name: Get Popular BLS Series
      type: http
    http:
      method: GET
      url: https://api.bls.gov/publicAPI/v2/timeseries/popular
      params:
      - name: registrationkey
        value: ''
        type: query
        description: Your registered BLS API key
      - name: survey
        value: CU
        type: query
        description: Filter popular series by survey abbreviation
    docs: Returns a list of the 25 most popular BLS series IDs across all surveys. Useful for discovering commonly referenced
      economic indicators.
bundled: true

Bureau of Labor Statistics

APIs

BLS Public Data API

Collections

BLS Public Data API

Pricing Plans

Bls Gov Plans Pricing

Rate Limits

Bls Gov Rate Limits

FinOps

Bls Gov Finops

Semantic Vocabularies

Bls Gov Context

API Governance Rules

Bureau of Labor Statistics API Rules

JSON Structure

Bls Time Series Structure

Example Payloads

Bls Get Unemployment Rate Example

Bls List Surveys Example

Resources

Sources