BLS unemployment and labor force indicators
Monthly U.S. labor force statistics from the BLS Current Population Survey (CPS): the unemployment rate (percent), the unemployment level (thousands of persons), the labor force participation rate (percent), and the employment-population ratio (percent). Seasonally adjusted.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics944 rowsUpdated: 9/22/2026
unemploymentlaborlabor-forceus
Quality
100
Attribution
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Schema
| Column | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| date | timestamp | Month of observation, mapped from the BLS API 'year' and 'period' fields (for example '2026' + 'M08' becomes 2026-08-01). Only monthly periods are kept. |
| series_id | string | BLS series identifier, e.g. 'CES0000000001' or 'CUSR0000SA0'. Encodes the survey, area, item, and seasonal adjustment; formats are documented at bls.gov/help/hlpforma.htm. |
| series_label | string | Official BLS series title from the Bureau's series catalog (data.bls.gov/timeseries), e.g. 'All employees, thousands, total nonfarm, seasonally adjusted'. |
| value | float | Observed value from the BLS API 'value' field. Units follow the series definition: employment and unemployment levels are in thousands of persons/jobs, average hourly earnings in dollars, weekly hours in hours, rates in percent, and CPI/PPI series in index points. Missing observations are null. |
Sample rows
| date | series_id | series_label | value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007-01-01T00:00:00 | LNS11300000 | (Seas) Labor Force Participation Rate | 66.4 |
| 2007-02-01T00:00:00 | LNS11300000 | (Seas) Labor Force Participation Rate | 66.3 |
| 2007-03-01T00:00:00 | LNS11300000 | (Seas) Labor Force Participation Rate | 66.2 |
| 2007-04-01T00:00:00 | LNS11300000 | (Seas) Labor Force Participation Rate | 65.9 |
| 2007-05-01T00:00:00 | LNS11300000 | (Seas) Labor Force Participation Rate | 66 |
Download sample data
Download the full sample snapshot for this dataset (sample rows, not the complete dataset).
Use with an LLM
Point any LLM at the metadata endpoint — the documentation above is machine-readable too (JSON-LD + Croissant).
cURL
curl "https://datazimuts.com/v1/datasets/bls/bls_unemployment" | jq '{title, rows, columns_count, license}'Python
import requests
ds = requests.get("https://datazimuts.com/v1/datasets/bls/bls_unemployment").json()
print(ds["title"], ds["rows"], "rows")
# Sample rows for an LLM context window
for row in ds.get("sample_rows", [])[:5]:
print(row)API endpoint: https://datazimuts.com/v1/datasets/bls/bls_unemployment
Tip: fetch /llms.txt for the full machine-readable catalog.