# BLS Data Scraper | Bureau of Labor Statistics API (`parseforge/bls-scraper`) Actor

Scrape US Bureau of Labor Statistics time series data via the official BLS API v2. Export CPI, unemployment rate, employment, PPI and any BLS series to CSV, Excel, JSON or XML.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/parseforge/bls-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [ParseForge](https://apify.com/parseforge) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, Automation, Other
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $19.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

![ParseForge Banner](https://github.com/ParseForge/apify-assets/blob/ad35ccc13ddd068b9d6cba33f323962e39aed5b2/banner.jpg?raw=true)

## 📊 BLS Data Scraper | US Bureau of Labor Statistics API

> 🚀 **Export US economic time series in seconds.** Pull **CPI, unemployment, employment, PPI** and any of the thousands of BLS series for any date range. No API key, no registration, no CSV wrangling.

The **BLS Data Scraper** retrieves time series data from the official US Bureau of Labor Statistics API v2 and returns **9 fields per record**, including the series identifier, human-readable title, year, period, value, footnotes, and collection timestamp. The BLS is the principal federal agency responsible for measuring labor market activity, working conditions, price changes, and productivity in the US economy.

The database covers **every major US economic indicator** - from consumer price inflation (CPI) and the unemployment rate to nonfarm payroll employment, hourly earnings, and the Producer Price Index. This Actor makes that data downloadable as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML in seconds. All requests go directly to the official BLS API, so you get authoritative government data with no intermediaries.

| 🎯 Target Audience | 💡 Primary Use Cases |
|---|---|
| Economists, financial analysts, data journalists, policy researchers, fintech developers, business intelligence teams, academic researchers | Inflation tracking, labor market analysis, economic dashboards, research datasets, financial modeling, policy briefs |

### 📋 What the BLS Data Scraper does

Five data collection workflows in a single run:

- 📈 **CPI tracking.** Pull consumer price inflation month-by-month across any date range with `CUUR0000SA0`.
- 💼 **Unemployment data.** Fetch the official US unemployment rate series with `LNS14000000`.
- 🏭 **Employment figures.** Get total nonfarm payroll employment with `CES0000000001`.
- 💹 **Producer prices.** Retrieve the Producer Price Index for Final Demand with `WPUFD4`.
- 🔢 **Any BLS series.** Supply any valid BLS series ID and retrieve its full historical record.

Each record includes the series ID, human-readable series title (for the most popular series), year, period code (M01-M13 for months, Q01-Q05 for quarters, A01 for annual), period name, numeric value, footnotes (such as preliminary or revised data flags), and the timestamp when the record was collected.

> 💡 **Why it matters:** US economic indicators from the BLS are the primary inputs to inflation models, Federal Reserve policy decisions, and labor market research. Building your own pipeline means writing API wrappers, handling pagination, and refreshing by hand. This Actor skips all of that and delivers clean structured records on every run.

### 📊 Data fields

Each record includes: `footnotes`, `period`, `periodName`, `results`, `scrapedAt`, `seriesId`, `seriesTitle`, `value`, `year`. These field names come straight from the actor's dataset schema, so what you see here is what lands in your dataset.

### 🚀 How to use

1. 📝 **Sign up.** [Create a free account with $5 credit](https://console.apify.com/sign-up?fpr=vmoqkp) (takes 2 minutes).
2. 🌐 **Open the Actor.** Go to the BLS Data Scraper page on the Apify Store.
3. 🎯 **Set input.** Enter the BLS series IDs you want, choose a start/end year, and set `maxItems`.
4. 🚀 **Run it.** Click **Start** and let the Actor collect your data.
5. 📥 **Download.** Grab your results in the **Dataset** tab as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML.

> ⏱️ Total time from signup to downloaded dataset: **3-5 minutes.** No coding required.

### 🔗 Recommended Actors

| Actor | Description |
|---|---|
| [**🌿 EPA AQS Air Quality Scraper**](https://apify.com/parseforge/epa-aqs-air-quality-scraper) | US EPA air quality measurements by location and pollutant |
| [**💀 CDC WONDER Mortality Scraper**](https://apify.com/parseforge/cdc-wonder-mortality-scraper) | US mortality statistics from the CDC WONDER database |
| [**🏠 HUD User Data Scraper**](https://apify.com/parseforge/hud-user-data-scraper) | US housing and urban development datasets |
| [**⚖️ USPTO Patent Assignments Scraper**](https://apify.com/parseforge/uspto-patent-assignments-scraper) | Patent assignment records from the US Patent Office |
| [**📡 FCC Broadband Map Scraper**](https://apify.com/parseforge/fcc-broadband-map-scraper) | US broadband availability and coverage data |

> 💡 **Pro Tip:** browse the complete [ParseForge collection](https://apify.com/parseforge) for more US government data scrapers.

*This Actor uses the official, publicly accessible BLS API v2 (api.bls.gov). Data is owned by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and is in the public domain. The Actor is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or officially connected to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics or the US Department of Labor.*

### 🆘 Need Help?

If you hit a bug, have questions about setup, or need a scraper we haven't built yet, open our [contact form](https://tally.so/r/BzdKgA) or write to parseforge@protonmail.com. We also take on paid custom data projects.

For faster answers, join our [Discord](https://parseforge.co/discord). It's the best place to get support and suggest new actors.

# Actor input Schema

## `seriesIds` (type: `array`):

BLS series IDs to fetch. Examples: CUUR0000SA0 (CPI), LNS14000000 (Unemployment Rate), CES0000000001 (Nonfarm Employment), WPUFD4 (PPI). Up to 25 series per request.

## `startYear` (type: `integer`):

First year of data to retrieve (e.g. 2020). Max range: 10 years per request for unregistered use.

## `endYear` (type: `integer`):

Last year of data to retrieve (e.g. 2024).

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

How many data series to collect per run.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "seriesIds": [
    "CUUR0000SA0",
    "LNS14000000"
  ],
  "startYear": 2020,
  "endYear": 2024,
  "maxItems": 10
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "seriesIds": [
        "CUUR0000SA0",
        "LNS14000000"
    ],
    "startYear": 2020,
    "endYear": 2024,
    "maxItems": 10
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("parseforge/bls-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "seriesIds": [
        "CUUR0000SA0",
        "LNS14000000",
    ],
    "startYear": 2020,
    "endYear": 2024,
    "maxItems": 10,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("parseforge/bls-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "seriesIds": [
    "CUUR0000SA0",
    "LNS14000000"
  ],
  "startYear": 2020,
  "endYear": 2024,
  "maxItems": 10
}' |
apify call parseforge/bls-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=parseforge/bls-scraper",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/Tqb3eh5Em0j6VtUm7/builds/dqkZkJg0gQstSrFn4/openapi.json