BLS Publications and Information Services
2012 Annual Summary
At BLS we gauge our impact and effectiveness by looking at: 1) the number of customers we reach; 2) the intensity and extent of their usage of BLS data and information, and; 3) their feedback.
Customers
Visitors to BLS Website
Unique Visitors to BLS Website per Month, on average: 4 million
A "unique visitor", in this context, is an individual who has accessed www.bls.gov at least once during a given month.
Total subscribers: 93,090
Total subscriptions (to the 60+ e-mail update and notification lists): 931,066
7,582 followers (as of end of 2012)
88 tweets, starting June 26, 2012
Note that Twitter shows post times in the Pacific time zone. Adding 3 hours to the time shown gives Eastern time.
Selected tweets
Inquiries from the Public: Contacts to BLS via website, e-mail, or phone
35,192 inquiries received and answered
BLS measures such activities through its Customer Inquiry System (CIS)
Outreach Activities: Presentations and Exhibits
BLS reached 25,086 data users at 286 outreach and educational activities in 2012
BLS measures such activities through its Outreach Activities Tracking System (OATS)
Selected venues and audiences
- C-SPAN Washington Journal – America by the Numbers
- National Association for Business Economics
- Association of Public Data Users
- Institute for Supply Management
- Tennessee Safety and Health Congress
- Upper Township (NJ) Middle School
- College Career Centers of Boston
- Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)
- Construction Marketing Research Council
- National Safety Council
- BLS Data Users Advisory Committee
- Society of American Business Editors and Writers
- Los Angeles County Chief Executive Office
- Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce
Data and Information Usage
Documents (includes data tables, charts, etc.)
Website Page Views
New and changed web documents posted to www.bls.gov each month, on average: 2,200
Page Views per month, on average: 45.8 millon
Each time a user accesses a Web page, it is called a page view. This means, roughly, that each page view represents a person reading one document on www.bls.gov.
175 National news releases issued
Most frequently requested releases (with average monthly page views)
Over 700 Regional News Releases issued
Selected regional releases (with total annual page views)
80,079,379 total annual page views
Most Read Occupational Profiles (with total annual page views)
12 issues, containing 47 articles and 39 features
Selected MLR Articles (with total annual page views)
- Labor force projections to 2020: a more slowly growing workforce (598,257)
- The hard truth about telecommuting (204,614)
- On guard against workplace hazards (127,525)
- Recent trends in the characteristics of unemployment insurance recipients (62,103)
- The declining average size of establishments: evidence and explanations (58,051)
- Older workers and short-term jobs: patterns and determinants (53,707)
- Wife's Employment and Allocation of Resources in Families with Children (50,566)
- Measuring annual change in household wealth with the Consumer Expenditure Survey (47,703)
- Can you hear me now? Occupational hearing loss, 2004–2010 (46,217)
4 issues, containing 11 articles and 15 features
Selected OOQ articles (with total annual page views)
9 issues
Most frequently read CWC Online articles (with total annual page views)
Detailed Reports
Selected Detailed Reports (with average monthly page views)
248 issues, one every work day
3,660 page views per day, on average
Other Publications
82 Other publications, including (with with total annual page views)
- Spotlight on Statistics: The Recession of 2007–2009 (201,231)
- Labor Force Characteristics by Race and Ethnicity, 2011 (170,083)
- Consumer Spending in 2010 (137,410)
- Highlight of Women's Earnings in 2011 (91,733)
- Spotlight on Statistics: Fashion (52,552)
- A comparison of 25 years of consumer expenditures by homeowners and renters (24,045)
- Energy Auditors (20,041)
- How Much Do Private Industry Employers Pay for Legally Required Employee Benefits? (18,073)
- Young adult employment during the recent recession (13,411)
101,244,987 data series, containing 500,538,297 estimates available online at BLS website
Data series downloaded for customers’ own use, on average, per month: 3,968,796 downloads
Most frequently requested data series
- Unemployment Rate: LNS14000000 (156,234 downloads per month, on average)
- Nonfarm Employment: CES0000000001 (35,524 downloads per month, on average)
- Consumer Price Index, not seasonally adjusted: CUUR0000SA0 (33,545 downloads per month, on average)
- Labor Force Participation Rate: LNS11300000 (26,675 downloads per month, on average)
- Consumer Price Index, seasonally adjusted: CUSR0000SA0 (16,720 downloads per month, on average)
Customer Feedback
As measured by the American Customer Satisfaction Index
