BLS Surveys and Programs — Descriptions and Links to BLS Handbook of Methods Chapters

• Employment and Unemployment
• Prices and Living Conditions
• Compensation and Working Conditions
• Productivity and Technology
• Employment Projections
• International Statistics

EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT

• Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey - national data on employment, unemployment, earnings, and other labor market topics by demographic characteristics.  See BLS Handbook of Methods Chapter 1.
  
  
• Nonfarm Payroll Statistics from the Current Employment Statistics (National) - monthly national data by detailed industry on employment, hours, and earnings of workers on the payrolls of  nonfarm establishments.  See BLS Handbook of Methods Chapter 2.
  
  
• Nonfarm Payroll Statistics from the Current Employment Statistics (State&Area) - monthly data on employment, hours, and earnings by industry and geographic area.  See BLS Handbook of Methods Chapter 2.
  
  
• Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages - comprehensive employment and wage data by industry and geographic area for workers covered by State Unemployment Insurance laws.  See BLS Handbook of Methods Chapter 5.
  
  
• Occupational Employment Statistics - data on employment and wages for over 800 occupations and for about 400 nonfarm industries for the nation, plus occupational data for States and metropolitan areas.  See BLS Handbook of Methods Chapter 3.
  
  
• Local Area Unemployment Statistics - monthly and annual employment, unemployment, and labor force data for Census regions and divisions, States, counties, metropolitan areas, and many cities, by place of residence.  See BLS Handbook of Methods Chapter 4.
  
  
• Mass Layoff Statistics - reports on mass layoff actions that result in workers being separated from their jobs.  See BLS Handbook of Methods Chapter 6.
  
  
• National Longitudinal Surveys - several surveys gathering information at multiple points in time about the labor market and life experiences of six groups of American men, women, and youth.    See BLS Handbook of Methods Chapter 7.
  
  
  

PRICES & LIVING CONDITIONS

• Consumer Price Indexes - monthly data on changes in the prices paid by urban consumers for a representative basket of goods and services.  See BLS Handbook of Methods Chapter 17.
  
  
• Producer Price Indexes - monthly data on changes in the selling prices received by domestic producers of goods and services.   See BLS Handbook of Methods Chapter 14.
  
  
• International Price Indexes - monthly data on changes in the prices of imported and exported nonmilitary goods traded between the U.S. and the rest of the world.  See BLS Handbook of Methods Chapter 15.
  
  
• Consumer Expenditure Survey - data on the buying habits of American consumers, by socioeconomic characteristics.  See BLS Handbook of Methods Chapter 16.
  
  
  

COMPENSATION AND WORKING CONDITIONS

• National Compensation Survey - designed to integrate data from separate BLS compensation surveys—currently provides earnings data by worker characteristics and establishment characteristics and by geographic area.  See BLS Handbook of Methods Chapter 8.
  
  — Employee Benefits Survey - comprehensive data on incidence and provisions of selected employee benefit plans
  
  — Employment Cost Trends - quarterly indexes measuring change over time in labor costs and quarterly data measuring level of average costs per hour worked
  
  — Occupational Compensation Survey - replaced by National Compensation Survey (data available on website for 1992-97 for selected occupations in the nation and in certain metropolitan areas).
  
  
• Safety and Health Statistics - data on illnesses and injuries on the job and data on worker fatalities.  See BLS Handbook of Methods Chapter 9.
  
  
• Work Stoppages - data on major work stoppages (lockouts and strikes).   See BLS Handbook of Methods Chapter 8, under "Work Stoppages".  
  
  
  

PRODUCTIVITY AND TECHNOLOGY

• Quarterly Labor Productivity - quarterly indexes of labor productivity and related costs measures for major sectors of the economy, including business, nonfarm business, and manufacturing.  See BLS Handbook of Methods Chapter 10.
  
  
• Multifactor Productivity - annual indexes for industries and major sectors of the economy that relate output to labor, capital, and—in some cases—other inputs.  See BLS Handbook of Methods Chapter 10 and BLS Handbook of Methods Chapter 11. 
  
  
• Industry Productivity - annual indexes of productivity for detailed industries.  See BLS Handbook of Methods Chapter 11.
  
  

EMPLOYMENT PROJECTIONS

• Employment Projections - projected estimates on the labor market and economy 10 years into future, and career information such as Occupational Outlook Handbook.  See BLS Handbook of Methods Chapter 13.
  

INTERNATIONAL STATISTICS

• Foreign Labor Statistics - comparative information by country on productivity and unit labor costs; compensation; labor force, employment, and unemployment; and consumer prices.  See BLS Handbook of Methods Chapter 12.

 

Last Modified Date: October 4, 2007