U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
From AltData.wiki, The Alternative Data Encyclopedia
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is the principal fact-finding agency of the U.S. federal government in the field of labor economics and statistics. A unit of the Department of Labor, it collects, processes, analyzes, and disseminates statistics on employment, unemployment, prices, compensation, and productivity to the public, Congress, other agencies, businesses, and labor representatives[2].
Its best-known outputs include the Consumer Price Index, the Producer Price Index, and the monthly Employment Situation report—the "jobs report"—released typically on the first Friday of each month[1][2]. All BLS data are free, and release dates are scheduled more than a year in advance, in coordination with the Office of Management and Budget, to avoid any appearance of partiality[2].
What It Does
BLS statistics fall into four main categories: prices (CPI, PPI, import/export price indexes, Consumer Expenditure Survey), employment and unemployment (Current Population Survey, Current Employment Statistics, Local Area Unemployment Statistics, JOLTS, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages), compensation and working conditions (National Compensation Survey, Employment Cost Index, workplace injury statistics), and productivity[2]. Its site also organizes outputs for specific audiences including business leaders, economists, investors, and developers[1].
Data And Methodology
The jobs report draws on two separate surveys. The Current Population Survey is a monthly household survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for BLS that measures the unemployment rate, labor force participation, and related series; the Current Employment Statistics program surveys approximately 121,000 businesses and government agencies covering roughly 631,000 worksites each month, reporting payroll data for the pay period including the 12th of the month[2].
Initial estimates are revised in the two following months as additional samples arrive, and CES March data are annually reanchored to universe counts from the QCEW; from 2000 through 2024 the average magnitude of the final annual revision of nonfarm employment was about 265,000 jobs[2].
Products
Beyond news releases, BLS offers data retrieval tools such as Top Picks, Series Report, and Data Finder, a public data API for developers, downloadable flat files of time series, calculators such as the CPI inflation calculator, and publications including the Occupational Outlook Handbook, the Handbook of Methods, and the Monthly Labor Review, published since 1915[1][2].
Delivery And Pricing
All statistics are delivered free of charge via bls.gov, through scheduled economic releases, an RSS feed, email subscriptions, chart applications, and the public API[1]. No paid tiers exist; the bureau is government-funded, reporting about 2,100 employees and a budget of 655 million dollars in 2021[2].
History
The Bureau of Labor was established within the Department of the Interior on June 27, 1884, following Senator Henry W. Blair's "Labor and Capital Hearings"; statistician Carroll D. Wright became the first U.S. Commissioner of Labor in 1885. The agency became an independent department in 1888, joined the Department of Commerce and Labor in 1903, and was transferred to the Department of Labor in 1913, where it remains[2].
Headquartered in Washington's Postal Square Building from 1992, BLS moved during 2024 to the Suitland Federal Center in Maryland, sharing the facility with the Census Bureau headquarters[2]. In August 2025, President Trump fired Commissioner Erika McEntarfer hours after a downward revision in the July jobs report, an episode the BBC reported had raised alarm on Wall Street about interference in economic data; Brett Matsumoto was nominated as her successor in May 2026[2].
Buyers And Use Cases
Because its series are timely, impartial, and methodologically documented, BLS data anchor macro models, inflation-linked contract escalation, wage benchmarking, and market reactions to scheduled releases[1][2]. Alternative data vendors frequently benchmark their proprietary employment or pricing panels against BLS releases, while researchers combine them with other open statistical sources such as U.S. Census Bureau data.