Library: Public Administration Research Guide: Labor & Unemployment

Introduction to Labor & Unemployment

This guide will help you maneuver through how the United States Government keeps labor statistics like unemployment and employment. Additionally Consumer Price Index and other stats can be retrieved from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Website.

Labor & Unemployment Definitions

Labor Force: The labor force consist of people who are either employed or unemployed.

Employed: People with jobs (including part-time jobs).

Unemployed: People who are jobless, available to work (non-military, non-institutionalized, and 16 years of age or older), and looking for a job (this excludes stay at home parents/guardians, college students not looking for employment, retired persons, persons on disability, and children).

Not in Labor Force: Persons who are neither employed nor employed.

Surveys & Statistical Sources

Current Population Survey (CPS): The Current Population Survey (CPS), sponsored jointly by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), is the primary source of labor force statistics for the population of the United States.

Current Employment Statistics (CES) Survey: a large monthly survey of approximately 147,000 businesses and government agencies that represent about 634,000 individual worksites. It is used to produce detailed industry estimates of employment, hours, and earnings for the nation, states, and metropolitan areas.

Bureau of Labor Statistics

The Bureau of Labor Statistics is the federal agency responsible for keeping economic and financial statistics, including unemployment, Consumer Price Index (CPI), Occupational Outlook, Workplace Injuries, and other statistics. While this is not a comprehensive guide to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it will explain some of the more relevant topics to public administration and policy.

Bureau of Labor Statistics Topics

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is a unit of the United States Department of Labor. It is the principal fact-finding agency for the U.S. government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics and serves as a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System

Employment & Unemployment

BLS Current Employment Statistics (CES)
The Current Employment Statistics (CES) program produces detailed industry estimates of nonfarm employment, hours, and earnings of workers on payrolls. CES National Estimates produces data for the nation, and CES State and Metro Area produces estimates for all 50 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and about 450 metropolitan areas and divisions.
BLS National Unemployment Rate
BLS updated page that holds unemployment statistics and information on the Labor Force.
BLS Economy at a Glance
Unemployment, payroll changes, CPI, PPI, and import prices snapshot.
BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW)
The Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program publishes a quarterly count of employment and wages reported by employers covering more than 95 percent of U.S. jobs, available at the county, MSA, state and national levels by industry.

Inflation & Prices (Domestic, International, Import/Export)

Consumer Price Index (CPI)
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measure of the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of consumer goods and services. Indexes are available for the U.S. and various geographic areas. Average price data for select utility, automotive fuel, and food items are also available.
Producer Price Index (PPI)
The Producer Price Index (PPI) program measures the average change over time in the selling prices received by domestic producers for their output. The prices included in the PPI are from the first commercial transaction for many products and some services.
Import/Export Price Indexes (MXP)
The International Price Program (IPP) produces Import/Export Price Indexes (MXP) containing data on changes in the prices of nonmilitary goods and services traded between the U.S. and the rest of the world.

Pay & Benefits

BLS has 12 surveys or programs that provide information on pay and benefits. Choosing the data source that is right for your needs can be a challenge. We have an interactive tool to help you compare the features of each source.

BLS data on pay and benefits are available for occupations, industries, geographic areas, and the demographic characteristics of workers. See our short video about "The Many Ways We Measure Pay."

Bureau of Labor Statistics: The Many Ways We Measure Pay

Employment Cost Trends
The National Compensation Survey produces quarterly indexes measuring change over time in labor costs, Employment Cost Index (ECI), and quarterly data measuring level of average costs per hour worked, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC).
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
The Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program produces employment and wage estimates annually for nearly 800 occupations. These estimates are available for the nation as a whole, for individual states, and for metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas; national occupational estimates for specific industries are also available.
Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH)
The Occupational Outlook Handbook is a publication of the United States Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics that includes information about the nature of work, working conditions, training and education, earnings and job outlook for hundreds of different occupations in the United States.
Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey
This page contains information on the earnings of employed persons derived from the Current Population Survey (CPS). Data on employed and unemployed persons, hours of work, and other demographic and labor force characteristics also are available.
BLS Workplace Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities
The Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities (IIF) program produces a wide range of information about workplace injuries and illnesses. These data are collected and reported annually through the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII) and the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI).