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.

Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes 3 APIs on the APIs.io network: Popular Series API, Surveys API, and Time Series API. Tagged areas include Federal-Government, Labor Statistics, Economic Data, Consumer Price Index, and Producer Price Index.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics catalog on APIs.io includes 1 JSON-LD context and 2 Spectral governance rulesets.

Bureau of Labor Statistics’ developer surface includes authentication, documentation, YouTube channel, engineering blog, and 10 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub

44.4/100 developing ▬ flat Agent 31/100 agent ready saas Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-09-08 · rubric v0.20.0

AccessFreemiumOpen⚡ Free to try

1 APIs

Federal-GovernmentLabor StatisticsEconomic DataConsumer Price IndexProducer Price IndexEmploymentUnemploymentWages Productivity Open Data Time Series

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-09-08 · rubric v0.20.0

Composite quality — 44.4/100 · developing

Contract Quality 12.8 / 19

Developer Ergonomics 5.0 / 15

Access Clarity 5.9 / 15

Operational Transparency 0.8 / 10

Contract Governance 2.3 / 9

Discoverability 5.1 / 8

Regulatory Posture 5.8 / 15

Create-or-Update Ergonomics 0.0 / 10

Agent readiness — 31/100 · agent ready

Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 10 / 10

Documented Reversibility 0 / 6

MCP Server 0 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 10 / 10

Idempotency 0 / 9

Stable Error Semantics 8 / 8

Request/Response Examples 7 / 7

Rate-Limit Signaling 7 / 7

Typed Event Surface 0 / 6

Agent Skills 0 / 5

Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4

Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3

A2A Agent Card 0 / 8

Dry-Run / Simulate Mode 0 / 4

Delegated User Identity 0 / 6

Protected Resource Metadata 0 / 5

Registration Without a Human 0 / 6

Agentic Commerce Well-Known Document 0 / 5

Regulatory Posture applies to this provider. Its tags matched the Government & Public Sector regime, so Regulatory Posture carries 15 points of the composite. If this regime is wrong for your business, say so on your provider repo — the applicability map is public and we will correct it.

Create-or-Update Ergonomics applies to this provider. This API accepts writes, so it carries 10 points of the composite. It is scored from the published contracts themselves: whether a caller can create-or-update in one call, whether the write accepts a key the caller already holds, and whether the response says which branch ran. Without that, every write needs a search-and-branch in front of it, and the first time that check is skipped a duplicate record is created. Scored against the observed mean rather than raw — a provider at the catalog average is unchanged by this facet, not penalised by it.

The six quality facets above are damped to 75 points between them, because the conditional facet above carries the other 25. That is why each facet's contribution is shown against a damped maximum: raising a quality facet moves the composite by 75% of its nominal weight, not 100%. The full arithmetic is at apis.io/rating/.

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APIs 3

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

Bureau of Labor Statistics Popular Series API

Retrieve the most popular BLS series identifiers

Bureau of Labor Statistics Surveys API

Discover and list available BLS surveys

Bureau of Labor Statistics Time Series API

Retrieve time series data for BLS statistical series

Open Collections 5

Open, tool-agnostic API collections (OpenAPI-derived and Bruno).

API Collection

OPEN COLLECTION

BLS Public Data Popular Series API

OPEN COLLECTION

BLS Public Data Popular Series Surveys API

OPEN COLLECTION

BLS Public Data Popular Series Time Series API

OPEN COLLECTION

BLS Public Data API

OPEN COLLECTION

Pricing Plans 1

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

Bls Gov Plans Pricing

3 plans

PLANS

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Bls Gov Rate Limits

5 limits

RATE LIMITS

FinOps 1

Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.

Bls Gov Finops

FINOPS

Semantic Vocabularies 1

JSON-LD contexts and semantic vocabularies used across these APIs.

Bls Gov Context

3 classes · 30 properties

JSON-LD

Spectral Rules 2

Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs.

Bureau of Labor Statistics API Rules

6 rules · 4 warnings 2 info

SPECTRAL

Bureau of Labor Statistics API Rules

10 rules · 2 errors 5 warnings 3 info

SPECTRAL

JSON Schema 1

Standalone JSON Schema definitions for this provider's data models.

BLS Time Series

4 properties

JSON SCHEMA

JSON Structure 1

JSON Structure definitions describing this provider's data shapes.

Bls Time Series Structure

0 properties

JSON STRUCTURE

Examples 2

Example request and response payloads for these APIs.

Bls Get Unemployment Rate Example

2 fields

EXAMPLE

Bls List Surveys Example

2 fields

EXAMPLE

Security Posture 2

Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.

Bls Gov Authentication

apiKey · 1 scheme

SECURITY

Bls Gov Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · DNSSEC · DMARC

SECURITY

Agentic Access 1

Recommended x-agentic-access execution contracts for AI agents.

Bls Gov Agentic Access

5 operations · 1 acting

AGENTIC

Resources

Documentation 1

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation

Documentation

Agent Surfaces 1

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

AgenticAccess

AgenticAccess

Access & Security 2

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

DomainSecurity

DomainSecurity

Authentication

Authentication

Learn 1

Tutorials, courses, talks, and written guidance

YouTube

YouTube

Operate 1

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

ContactUs

ContactUs

Commercial 1

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

TermsOfService

TermsOfService

Company 5

The organization behind the API

Website

Website

LinkedIn

Twitter

Twitter

Facebook

Facebook

Blog

Blog

Other 2

Properties that don't map to a standard resource type

Developer

Developer

Registration

Registration

Source (apis.yml)

aid: bls-gov
name: Bureau of Labor Statistics
description: 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.
type: Index
deliveryModel:
  model: saas
  open_source: false
  commercial: true
  callable_host: true
  label: Hosted service · you call their endpoint
  confidence: high
  source:
  - openapi
  - pricing
  generated: '2026-08-28'
  method: derived
accessModel:
  pricing: freemium
  onboarding: open
  trial: false
  try_now: true
  public: true
  label: Freemium · Open access
  confidence: high
  source:
  - plans
  - authentication
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
position: Consuming
access: 3rd-Party
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/bls-gov.png
tags:
- Federal-Government
- Labor Statistics
- Economic Data
- Consumer Price Index
- Producer Price Index
- Employment
- Unemployment
- Wages
- Productivity
- Open Data
- Time Series
tags_raw:
- Federal Government
- Labor Statistics
- Economic Data
- Consumer Price Index
- Producer Price Index
- Employment
- Unemployment
- Wages
- Productivity
- Open Data
- Time Series
created: '2026-05-25'
modified: '2026-05-25'
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/bls-gov/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
specificationVersion: '0.23'
apis:
- aid: bls-gov:bls-gov-popular-series-api
  name: Bureau of Labor Statistics Popular Series API
  description: Retrieve the most popular BLS series identifiers
  humanURL: https://www.bls.gov/developers/home.htm
  baseURL: https://api.bls.gov/publicAPI/v2
  tags:
  - Popular Series
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/bls-gov-popular-series-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.bls.gov/developers/home.htm
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.bls.gov/developers/api_signature_v2.htm
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://www.bls.gov/developers/api_FAQs.htm
  - type: Registration
    url: https://data.bls.gov/registrationEngine/
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://www.bls.gov/developers/termsOfService.htm
  - type: SignatureExamples
    url: https://www.bls.gov/developers/api_sample_code.htm
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/bls-gov/refs/heads/main/json-schema/bls-time-series-schema.json
  - type: JSONStructure
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/bls-gov/refs/heads/main/json-structure/bls-time-series-structure.json
  - type: JSONLD
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/bls-gov/refs/heads/main/json-ld/bls-gov-context.jsonld
  - type: SpectralRuleset
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/bls-gov/refs/heads/main/rules/bls-public-data-api-rules.yml
  - type: DataAPI
    url: https://api.bls.gov/publicAPI/v2/timeseries/data/
  - type: DataAPI
    url: https://api.bls.gov/publicAPI/v2/surveys
  - type: DataAPI
    url: https://api.bls.gov/publicAPI/v2/timeseries/popular
  - type: RateLimits
    url: rate-limits/bls-gov-rate-limits.yml
  - type: Plans
    url: plans/bls-gov-plans-pricing.yml
  - type: FinOps
    url: finops/bls-gov-finops.yml
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/bls-get-unemployment-rate-example.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/bls-list-surveys-example.json
  - type: Vocabulary
    url: vocabulary/bls-gov-vocabulary.yml
- aid: bls-gov:bls-gov-surveys-api
  name: Bureau of Labor Statistics Surveys API
  description: Discover and list available BLS surveys
  humanURL: https://www.bls.gov/developers/home.htm
  baseURL: https://api.bls.gov/publicAPI/v2
  tags:
  - Surveys
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/bls-gov-surveys-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.bls.gov/developers/home.htm
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.bls.gov/developers/api_signature_v2.htm
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://www.bls.gov/developers/api_FAQs.htm
  - type: Registration
    url: https://data.bls.gov/registrationEngine/
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://www.bls.gov/developers/termsOfService.htm
  - type: SignatureExamples
    url: https://www.bls.gov/developers/api_sample_code.htm
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/bls-gov/refs/heads/main/json-schema/bls-time-series-schema.json
  - type: JSONStructure
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/bls-gov/refs/heads/main/json-structure/bls-time-series-structure.json
  - type: JSONLD
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/bls-gov/refs/heads/main/json-ld/bls-gov-context.jsonld
  - type: SpectralRuleset
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/bls-gov/refs/heads/main/rules/bls-public-data-api-rules.yml
  - type: DataAPI
    url: https://api.bls.gov/publicAPI/v2/timeseries/data/
  - type: DataAPI
    url: https://api.bls.gov/publicAPI/v2/surveys
  - type: DataAPI
    url: https://api.bls.gov/publicAPI/v2/timeseries/popular
  - type: RateLimits
    url: rate-limits/bls-gov-rate-limits.yml
  - type: Plans
    url: plans/bls-gov-plans-pricing.yml
  - type: FinOps
    url: finops/bls-gov-finops.yml
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/bls-get-unemployment-rate-example.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/bls-list-surveys-example.json
  - type: Vocabulary
    url: vocabulary/bls-gov-vocabulary.yml
- aid: bls-gov:bls-gov-time-series-api
  name: Bureau of Labor Statistics Time Series API
  description: Retrieve time series data for BLS statistical series
  humanURL: https://www.bls.gov/developers/home.htm
  baseURL: https://api.bls.gov/publicAPI/v2
  tags:
  - Time Series
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/bls-gov-time-series-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.bls.gov/developers/home.htm
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://www.bls.gov/developers/api_signature_v2.htm
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://www.bls.gov/developers/api_FAQs.htm
  - type: Registration
    url: https://data.bls.gov/registrationEngine/
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://www.bls.gov/developers/termsOfService.htm
  - type: SignatureExamples
    url: https://www.bls.gov/developers/api_sample_code.htm
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/bls-gov/refs/heads/main/json-schema/bls-time-series-schema.json
  - type: JSONStructure
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/bls-gov/refs/heads/main/json-structure/bls-time-series-structure.json
  - type: JSONLD
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/bls-gov/refs/heads/main/json-ld/bls-gov-context.jsonld
  - type: SpectralRuleset
    url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/bls-gov/refs/heads/main/rules/bls-public-data-api-rules.yml
  - type: DataAPI
    url: https://api.bls.gov/publicAPI/v2/timeseries/data/
  - type: DataAPI
    url: https://api.bls.gov/publicAPI/v2/surveys
  - type: DataAPI
    url: https://api.bls.gov/publicAPI/v2/timeseries/popular
  - type: RateLimits
    url: rate-limits/bls-gov-rate-limits.yml
  - type: Plans
    url: plans/bls-gov-plans-pricing.yml
  - type: FinOps
    url: finops/bls-gov-finops.yml
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/bls-get-unemployment-rate-example.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/bls-list-surveys-example.json
  - type: Vocabulary
    url: vocabulary/bls-gov-vocabulary.yml
features:
- name: Time Series Data Retrieval
  description: Retrieve historical time series for one or many BLS series IDs in a single JSON response.
- name: Multi-Series Batch Queries
  description: With a v2 registration key, request up to 50 series IDs in a single POST and span up to 20 years.
- name: Date Range Filtering
  description: Constrain queries with startyear/endyear (and optional startperiod/endperiod) to retrieve only the range you
    need.
- name: Statistical Calculations
  description: Optional net change and percent change calculations over 1, 3, 6, and 12 month windows on v2 requests.
- name: Catalog Metadata
  description: Request series-level catalog metadata (survey, area, item, seasonality) inline with the time series payload.
- name: Annual Averages
  description: Include the M13 annual average period alongside monthly values for CPI, PPI, and similar series.
- name: Latest Observation Shortcut
  description: Append latest=true to the GET endpoint to retrieve only the most recent data point for a series.
- name: Survey Discovery
  description: List all BLS surveys with their two-letter abbreviation and human-readable name.
- name: Survey Metadata
  description: Inspect a single survey for capability flags (allowsNetChange, allowsPercentChange, hasAnnualAverages).
- name: Popular Series
  description: Retrieve the 25 most-requested series IDs overall or scoped to a specific survey abbreviation.
useCases:
- name: Inflation Monitoring
  description: Track CPI-U, CPI-W, Chained CPI, and PPI series for inflation dashboards and forecasting.
- name: Labor Market Analysis
  description: Pull unemployment rate, labor force participation, payroll employment, and JOLTS series to monitor the labor
    market.
- name: Wage & Compensation Benchmarking
  description: Use OEWS, ECI, and ECEC series for occupational wage and total compensation benchmarking.
- name: Regional Economic Dashboards
  description: Combine LAUS and QCEW series for state, MSA, and county-level employment and unemployment dashboards.
- name: Workplace Safety Reporting
  description: Surface CFOI fatal injury and SOII non-fatal injury statistics for ESG and safety reporting.
- name: Productivity Research
  description: Retrieve labor productivity and unit labor cost series for productivity research.
- name: Trade Price Analysis
  description: Pull Import/Export Price Index series to analyze cost pass-through in supply chains.
solutions:
- name: Economic Intelligence Platforms
  description: Embed BLS series directly into market intelligence and macro research platforms.
- name: HR Analytics & Compensation Tools
  description: Power HR comp planning and pay equity tools with OEWS and ECI data.
- name: Open Government Data Portals
  description: Enrich open data portals and civic apps with BLS statistical datasets.
- name: AI Economic Agents
  description: Feed BLS time series into AI assistants and Naftiko capabilities for economic analysis and forecasting.
integrations:
- name: data.gov
  description: BLS datasets are cataloged at catalog.data.gov under the bls-gov organization.
  url: https://catalog.data.gov/organization/bls-gov
- name: FRED (St. Louis Fed)
  description: FRED ingests and redistributes a large share of BLS series and is a common downstream consumer.
  url: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/
- name: Census Bureau
  description: BLS QCEW and OEWS data align with Census Bureau geographic and industry classifications (NAICS, SOC).
  url: https://www.census.gov/
common:
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/bls-gov-agentic-access.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/bls-gov-domain-security.yml
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/bls-gov-authentication.yml
- type: Website
  url: https://www.bls.gov/
- type: Developer
  url: https://www.bls.gov/developers/
- type: Documentation
  url: https://www.bls.gov/developers/home.htm
- type: Registration
  url: https://data.bls.gov/registrationEngine/
- type: TermsOfService
  url: https://www.bls.gov/developers/termsOfService.htm
- type: ContactUs
  url: https://www.bls.gov/contact/
- type: LinkedIn
  url: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bureau-of-labor-statistics
- type: Twitter
  url: https://twitter.com/BLS_gov
- type: Facebook
  url: https://www.facebook.com/BLSgov
- type: YouTube
  url: https://www.youtube.com/user/blsgov
- type: Blog
  url: https://www.bls.gov/bls/news.htm
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com

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