The Current Population Survey (CPS) is a monthly survey of households conducted by the Bureau of Census for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It provides a comprehensive body of data on the: labor force, employment, unemployment and persons not in the labor force.

Next Release: November 7, 2008

The Employment Situation for October 2008 is scheduled to be released on November 7, 2008, at 8:30 A.M. Eastern Time.


CPS News Releases

Employment Situation

October 03, 2008
Nonfarm payroll employment declined by 159,000 in September, and the unemployment rate held at 6.1 percent. Employment continued to fall in construction, manufacturing, and retail trade, while mining and health care continued to add jobs. More...
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Featured News Release:

Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers

October 17, 2008
Median weekly earnings of the nation's 107.2 million full-time wage and salary workers were $720 in the third quarter of 2008. This was 3.6 percent higher than a year earlier, compared with a gain of 5.3 percent in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) over the same period. More...
(HTML) (PDF)

Current CPS Economic News Releases:

All CPS News Releases »

CPS Databases

Databases

Database Name Special
Notice
Top
Picks
One
Screen
Multi-
Screen
Tables Text Files
Tutorials:
For help, try these tutorials
  Most Requested Statistics Tutorial Create Customized Tables (one screen) Tutorial Create Customized Tables (multi screen) Tutorial    
Labor Force Statistics including the National Unemployment Rate
(Current Population Survey - CPS)
  Top Picks One Screen Data Search   Tables Text Files
Weekly & Hourly Earnings
(Current Population Survey - CPS)
  Top Picks One Screen Data Search   Tables Text Files
Union Affiliation Data
(Current Population Survey - CPS)
  Top Picks     Tables Text Files

 

Historical News Release Tables

Table Name Data Retrieval Wizard
Tutorial:
For help, try this tutorial.
Data Retrieval Wizard Tutorial
Historical 'A' Tables (Household data): Previous years and months
Employment Situation New Release (monthly)
Current Population Survey (CPS)
Data Retrieval Wizard
Historical 'B' Tables (Establishment data): Previous years and months
Employment Situation News Release (monthly)
Current Employment Statistics (CES)
Data Retrieval Wizard
Weekly Earnings Tables: Previous quarters
Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers News Release (quarterly)
Current Population Survey (CPS)
Data Retrieval Wizard
Union Affiliation Tables: Previous years
Union Members News Release (annual)
Current Population Survey (CPS)
Data Retrieval Wizard

More Tools

  • Series Report —Already know the series identifier for the statistic you want? Use this shortcut to retrieve your data.
  • Flat files FTP Site —or those who want it all. Download a flat file of the entire database or large subset of the database.

Featured CPS Tables

Most-Requested CPS Tables

  • Employment status of the population, 1940s to date (TXT) (PDF)
  • Employment status by sex, 1970s to date (TXT) (PDF)
  • Employment status by detailed age, 2007 annual averages (TXT) (PDF)
  • Employment status by educational attainment, 2007 annual averages (TXT) (PDF)
  • Employment by detailed occupation, sex, race, and Hispanic ethnicity, 2007 annual averages (TXT) (PDF)
  • Median weekly earnings by detailed occupation and sex, 2007 annual averages (TXT) ( PDF)

Annual tables   Monthly tables   Quarterly tables

All CPS Data Tables »

CPS Publications

Most-Requested CPS Publications

All CPS Publications »

CPS Frequently Asked Questions

CPS Special Notices

Related Links to Other BLS Programs

  • Employment, Hours, and Earnings from the CES survey (National)
    • Monthly national data by detailed industry on employment, hours, and earnings of workers on the payrolls of nonfarm establishments.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.

Other Useful Links

Contact Us

Contact the Current Population Survey (CPS)


Economists are available to assist you with data from the Current Population Survey Monday through Friday (8:00 A.M. - 4:30 P.M.), excluding Federal holidays.
  • Contact us by e-mail
  • Contact us by phone: (202) 691-6378
    To enable us to better serve all of our customers, please do not submit email questions and then call for the same information.

For assistance with these special topics:

  • Employment and Earnings periodical (Gloria Goings): (202) 691-6372
  • Microdata files (Peter Horner): (202) 691-6103
  • Seasonal adjustment methodology (Thomas Evans): (202) 691-6354

Written inquiries may be directed to:
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Division of Labor Force Statistics
Suite 4675
2 Massachusetts Avenue, NE
Washington, DC 20212-0001



The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not provide information about unemployment insurance (UI):

 

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