The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) 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. The BLS collects, processes, analyzes, and disseminates essential statistical data to the American public, the U.S. Congress, other Federal agencies, State and local governments, business, and labor representatives. The BLS also serves as a statistical resource to the United States Department of Labor, and conducts research measuring the income levels families need to maintain a satisfactory quality of life.[5]
 | |
 The Postal Square Building in Washington, D.C., headquarters of the Bureau of Labor Statistics until 2024 | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | June 27, 1884 |
| Jurisdiction | Federal government of the United States |
| Headquarters | Suitland Federal Center Suitland, Maryland, U.S. |
| Employees | 2,100[1] |
| Annual budget | $655 million (2021)[2] |
| Agency executives |
|
| Website | bls.gov |
BLS data must satisfy a number of criteria, including relevance to current social and economic issues, timeliness in reflecting today's rapidly changing economic conditions, accuracy and consistently high statistical quality, impartiality in both subject matter and presentation, and accessibility to all. To avoid the appearance of partiality, the dates of major data releases are scheduled more than a year in advance, in coordination with the Office of Management and Budget.[6]
History
edit
The Bureau of Labor was established within the Department of the Interior on June 27, 1884, to collect information about employment and labor. Its creation under the Bureau of Labor Act (23 Stat. 60) stemmed from the findings of U.S. Senator Henry W. Blair's "Labor and Capital Hearings", which examined labor issues and working conditions in the U.S.[7] Statistician Carroll D. Wright became the first U.S. Commissioner of Labor in 1885, a position he held until 1905. The Bureau's placement within the federal government structure changed three times in the first 29 years following its formation. It was made an independent (sub-Cabinet) department by the Department of Labor Act (25 Stat. 182) on June 13, 1888. The Bureau was then incorporated into the Department of Commerce and Labor by the Department of Commerce Act (32 Stat. 827) on February 14, 1903. Finally, it was transferred under the Department of Labor in 1913, where it resides today.[8][9] Starting in 1992, BLS was headquartered in the Postal Square Building near Washington Union Station. During 2024, BLS headquarters were moved to the Suitland Federal Center in Suitland, Maryland, into the same facility that houses the Bureau of the Census headquarters.
Since 1915, the BLS has published the Monthly Labor Review, a journal focused on the data and methodologies of labor statistics.
The BLS is headed by a commissioner who serves a four-year term from the date he or she takes office. The most recent Commissioner of Labor Statistics is Erika McEntarfer, who was confirmed by the U.S. Senate for the office on January 11, 2024.[10]
Erica Groshen was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on January 2, 2013, and sworn in as the 14th Commissioner of Labor Statistics on January 29, 2013, for a term that ended on January 27, 2017.[11][12] William Wiatrowski, Deputy Commissioner of the BLS, served as Acting Commissioner until the next commissioner, William Beach was sworn in. Beach served until January 2024, at which time he was succeeded by Erika McEntarfer.
Firing of Commissioner McEntarfer
editOn August 1, 2025, President Donald Trump announced he would fire Commissioner McEntarfer, hours after a downward revision in job creation was published in the Bureau's July jobs report.[13][14] According to the BBC, "[t]he decision shocked Wall Street and raised alarm about White House interference in economic data."[15] Commentators pointed out that due to BLS security precautions, the commissioner did not have access to the systems that collect the data for this report, and could not change the results without a large number of people knowing and at least some of them complaining publicly.[16]
According to the WSJ, the BLS has faced issues with data collection in recent years. Budget cuts—including a governmental hiring freeze earlier this year—and response rates have made providing real-time, accurate data more difficult. For example, the BLS surveys about 120,000 employers by phone or online to track the number of jobs in the economy and about 30% to 40% don’t reply on time—up from under 20% a decade ago.[17]
Commissioners
editCommissioners of Labor Statistics (1885 to present):[18]
| No. | Portrait | Commissioner | Took office | Left office | Refs. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 
|
Carroll D. Wright | January 1885 | January 1905 | |
| 2 | 
|
Charles P. Neill | February 1905 | May 1913 | |
| Acting | George Hanger | May 1913 | August 1913 | ||
| 3 | 
|
Royal Meeker | August 11, 1913 | June 1920 | |
| 4 | 
|
Ethelbert Stewart | June 1920 | June 1932 | |
| Acting | 
|
Charles E. Baldwin | July 1932 | July 1933 | |
| 5 | 
|
Isador Lubin | July 1933 | January 1946 | |
| Acting |
|
A. Ford Hinrichs | January 1946 | July 1946 | |
| Acting | 
|
Aryness Joy Wickens | July 1946 | August 1946 | |
| 6 | 
|
Ewan Clague | August 1946 | September 1965 | |
| 7 | 
|
Arthur Ross | October 1965 | July 1968 | |
| Acting |
|
Ben Burdetsky | July 1968 | March 1969 | |
| 8 | 
|
Geoffrey H. Moore | March 1969 | January 1973 | [19] |
| Acting |
|
Ben Burdetsky | January 1973 | July 1973 | |
| 9 | 
|
Julius Shiskin[a] | July 1973 | October 1978 | [20] |
| 10 | 
|
Janet L. Norwood | May 1979 | December 1991 | [21] |
| Acting |
|
William G. Barron Jr. | December 1991 | October 1993 | |
| 11 | 
|
Katharine Abraham | October 1993 | October 2001 | [22] |
| Acting |
|
Lois Orr | October 2001 | July 2002 | |
| 12 | 
|
Kathleen Utgoff | July 2002 | July 2006 | [23] |
| Acting |
|
Philip Rones | July 2006 | January 2008 | |
| 13 | 
|
Keith Hall | January 2008 | January 2012 | [24] |
| Acting |
|
John M. (Jack) Galvin | January 2012 | January 2013 | |
| 14 | 
|
Erica Groshen | January 29, 2013 | January 27, 2017 | [25] |
| Acting | 
|
William J. Wiatrowski | January 2017 | March 2019 | |
| 15 | 
|
William Beach | March 28, 2019 | March 27, 2023 | [26][27] |
| Acting |
|
William J. Wiatrowski | March 2023 | January 28, 2024 | |
| 16 | 
|
Erika McEntarfer | January 29, 2024 | August 1, 2025 | [28][3] |
| Acting |
|
William J. Wiatrowski | August 1, 2025 | Present |
Table notes:
- ^ Died in office
Statistical reporting
editStatistics published by the BLS fall into four main categories:[29]
Prices
edit- U.S. Consumer Price Index
- Producer Price Index
- U.S. Import and Export Price Indexes
- Consumer Expenditure Survey
Employment and unemployment
edit
- Current Population Survey (The "Household Survey")
- Current Employment Statistics[31] (The "Establishment Survey")
- Payroll Employment
- JOLTS report - Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey
- Economic geography
- Salary Data
- Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS)[32]
- Current Employment Statistics State and Area program[33]
- The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS)[34]
- The Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW)[35]
- The Business Employment Dynamics (BED) program[36]
- Ten year occupational employment projections
- Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, called OES until recently
- Mass Layoff Statistics--discontinued in 2013[37]
Compensation and working conditions
edit- National Compensation Survey
- Workplace Injury and Fatality Statistics[38]
Workers involved in strikes by year, US Bureau of Labor Statistics
Productivity
edit- Labor productivity, aggregate and by industry[39]
- Multifactor productivity
- State labor productivity
- Work Stoppage data
Statistical regions
editData produced by the BLS is often categorized into groups of states known as Census Regions. There are four Census Regions, which are further categorized by Census Division as follows:
Northeast Region
- New England Division: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
- Middle Atlantic Division: New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.
South Region
- South Atlantic Division: Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia.
- East South Central Division: Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee.
- West South Central Division: Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas.
Midwest Region
- East North Central Division: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
- West North Central Division: Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
West Region
- Mountain Division: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.
- Pacific Division: Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington.
See also
editFootnotes
edit- ^ "FY 2024 Congressional Budget Justification" (PDF). Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved November 21, 2023.
- ^ "BLS 2021 Operating Plan" (PDF). US Department of Labor. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 27, 2021. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
- ^ a b Maher, Kit; Egan, Matt; Wallace, Alicia (August 1, 2025). "Trump fires a senior official over jobs numbers". CNN. Retrieved August 1, 2025.
- ^ "Bureau of Labor Statistics: Senior Staff". Bureau of Labor Statistics. Archived from the original on February 23, 2017.
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on June 11, 2014. Retrieved December 22, 2013.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ Cohen, Patricia (November 3, 2016). "How Economic Data Is Kept Politics-Free". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on March 11, 2017. Retrieved February 23, 2017.
- ^ GB McKinney, Henry W. Blair's Campaign to Reform America: From the Civil War to the U.S (2012) 110-111
- ^ "Records of the Bureau of Labor Statistics [BLS]". National Archives. August 15, 2016. Archived from the original on February 24, 2017. Retrieved February 23, 2017.
- ^ "Overview : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics". www.bls.gov. Archived from the original on February 23, 2017. Retrieved February 23, 2017.
- ^ "PN837 — Erika L. McEntarfer — Department of Labor". Congress.gov. January 11, 2024. Retrieved August 5, 2025.
- ^ Presidential Nominations, 112th Congress (011 - 2012), PN1404-112 Archived 2025-08-06 at the Wayback Machine, Library of Congress, thomas.loc.gov
- ^ Senate Confirms Erica Groshen to Head Bureau of Labor Statistics Archived 2025-08-06 at the Wayback Machine, by Jeffrey Sparshott at Wall Street Journal]
- ^ Samson, Adam; Steer, George (August 1, 2025). "Donald Trump to fire US labour statistics boss after weak jobs report". Financial Times. Retrieved August 1, 2025.
- ^ Boak, Joshua (August 2, 2025). "In wake of bad jobs report, Trump wants to fire head of labor statistics department". Associated Press. Retrieved August 2, 2025.
- ^ bbc.com 2 August 2025: Trump fires lead official on economic data as tariffs cause market drop
- ^ Leila Fadel (August 4, 2025). "A former Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner on the firing of BLS head". NPR.
- ^ Grossman, Matt. "Real Strains Inside the BLS Made It Vulnerable to Trump's Accusations". WSJ. Retrieved August 5, 2025.
- ^ "Past BLS Commissioners". bls.gov.
- ^ "Geoffrey H. Moore". BLS.
- ^ "Julius Shiskin". BLS.
- ^ "Janet Norwood". BLS.
- ^ "Katharine G. Abraham". BLS.
- ^ "Kathleen Utgoff". BLS.
- ^ "Keith Hall". BLS.
- ^ "Erica L. Groshen". BLS.
- ^ "William W. Beach". BLS.
- ^ "Passing the Baton to the New BLS Commissioner". BLS. March 28, 2019.
- ^ "Dr. Erika McEntarfer, Commissioner". BLS.
- ^ "Subject Area Categories : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics". Archived from the original on February 23, 2017. Retrieved February 23, 2017.
- ^ "American Time Use Survey". Bureau of Labor Statistics. Archived from the original on February 23, 2017.
- ^ "Current Employment Statistics". Bureau of Labor Statistics. Archived from the original on February 23, 2017.
- ^ "Local Area Unemployment Statistics". Bureau of Labor Statistics. Archived from the original on September 8, 2017.
- ^ "Employment, Hours, and Earnings from the Current Employment Statistics survey (State & Metro Area) Home Page". Bls.gov. May 30, 2012. Archived from the original on June 15, 2012. Retrieved June 22, 2012.
- ^ "Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey Home Page". Bls.gov. Archived from the original on June 16, 2012. Retrieved June 22, 2012.
- ^ "Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages". Bls.gov. March 28, 2012. Archived from the original on June 10, 2012. Retrieved June 22, 2012.
- ^ "Business Employment Dynamics Home Page". Bls.gov. May 1, 2012. Archived from the original on October 15, 2012. Retrieved June 22, 2012.
- ^ "Mass Layoff Statistics Home Page". Bls.gov. May 16, 2012. Archived from the original on February 23, 2017. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
- ^ "Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities". Bls.gov. Archived from the original on June 26, 2012. Retrieved June 22, 2012.
- ^ "Overview of BLS Productivity Statistics". Bls.gov. Archived from the original on June 25, 2012. Retrieved June 22, 2012.
Further reading
edit- Joseph P. Goldberg and William T. Moye, The First 100 Years of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bulletin No. 2235. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1985.
- William J. Wiatrowski, "BLS at 125: Using historic principles to track the 21st-century economy". Monthly Labor Review, June 2009, pp. 3–25.
External links
edit
- Official website
- Records of the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the National Archives (Record Group 257)
- Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Federal Register
- Publications of the BLS available on FRASER
- Bulletins of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, dating back to 1895
- Local Area Unemployment Reports