Reference · built on requestCommons signalEconomic & calendar reference

BLS Public Data API

Employment, price, wage, and productivity time series from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Public Data API in JSON or XLSX.

Request accessPricing ↗

About

The BLS Public Data API serves time series from the Bureau of Labor Statistics at api.bls.gov/publicAPI/v2/timeseries/data/. Version 2.0 requires registration and lets you request more data more often; Version 1.0 is open without a key but limited. A GET fetches one series for the past three years by default. A POST carries up to 50 series ids, a startyear and endyear spanning up to 20 years, and optional catalog, calculations, annualaverage, aspects, and latest flags. Results arrive in JSON or XLSX with year, period, periodName, value, and footnotes for each data point.

On Fibric, an operator reads the CPI, PPI, or Employment Cost Index series behind your contracts and proposes a wage-budget or price-list review for your approval, citing the series id and the date retrieved.

This is a reference listing. It documents what Fibric would read from BLS Public Data API and what it could propose, based on the publisher's published interfaces. Fibric builds it under a managed deployment when you request it; selecting it here installs nothing.

Inputs

  • Any series by id through timeseries/data: CU for CPI-U, WP and PC for PPI, CE for national employment, LA for local area unemployment
  • Employment Cost Index (CI), Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (CM), and the productivity programs PR, MP, and IP
  • Per data point: year, period, periodName, value, and footnotes; latest=true returns the most recent point only
  • Net and percent changes with calculations=true and annual averages with annualaverage=true, both Version 2.0 only
  • Series description information with catalog=true, available for a select number of surveys

Proposed actions

Read-only. This feed informs operators; it changes nothing.

Proposed actions are target capabilities. Every action runs propose-first and needs a validated deployment and the appropriate permissions.

What you can build

  • Reprice a wage budget on the Employment Cost Index

    Read the CI series each quarter with calculations=true. When the percent change exceeds the assumption in your budget, the operator proposes a revised labor line and attaches the data points.

    With Labor Budget

  • Check a contract escalator against CPI

    Pull CUUR0000SA0 with latest=true and the 12-month change. When a contract's escalation clause is due, the operator proposes the adjusted price and cites the period and value used.

    With Price List Drift

  • Brief the board on input costs

    Fetch the PPI commodity series for your inputs in one POST of up to 50 ids. The operator proposes a page for the pack with the latest values and the retrieval date.

    With Board Pack

Requirements

  • Registration with an email address and organization name for Version 2.0, renewed at least once a year
  • Series ids in the BLS format, such as CUUR0000SA0L1E for CPI-U or LAUCN281070000000003 for county unemployment
  • Citation of the date data were accessed or retrieved, as the Terms of Service require
  • A POST body for anything beyond one series with default years; GET returns a single series only
Authentication
A free Version 2.0 registration key from the BLS Public Data API registration page, sent as registrationkey; Version 1.0 takes no key and allows less.

Limits

  • Version 2.0 allows 500 daily queries, 50 series per query, and 20 years per query; Version 1.0 allows 25, 25, and 10
  • Net and percent changes are not available via API Version 1.0
  • Catalog data is only available for a select number of surveys
  • BLS may impose limitations on access, calls, or use and may block users who attempt to exceed or circumvent them

Access and pricing

Reference listing. Public feed access is separate from Fibric integration. If you request this feed, your quote covers the build, usage, and support.

Request BLS Public Data API ↗

Questions and answers

What does a request look like?
A GET to https://api.bls.gov/publicAPI/v2/timeseries/data/{seriesid} returns one series for the past three years. A POST to the same base sends a JSON body with seriesid, startyear, endyear, registrationkey, and optional flags. Responses carry status, responseTime, message, and Results.series.
Do I need a key?
Not for Version 1.0, which is open for public use with 25 daily queries, 25 series per query, and 10 years per query. Version 2.0 requires registration and raises those to 500, 50, and 20, and adds calculations, annual averages, and catalog data.
May I republish the data?
BLS says everything it publishes is in the public domain, except previously copyrighted photographs and illustrations, and asks that you cite the Bureau of Labor Statistics as the source. The API Terms of Service add the retrieval date and a note that BLS cannot vouch for analyses derived after retrieval.
Ask about BLS Public Data API

Ask about the capabilities and requirements in this listing.

For project-specific requirements, contact Fibric.

This Commons signal listing is developed, published, and supported by Fibric. It reads public data published by U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (api.bls.gov). Upstream agencies and projects are the property of their respective owners, who are not affiliated with Fibric and do not sponsor or endorse this listing. Trademark policy