BLS Employment & Wages

Get unemployment rate time series from BLS LAUS data. Returns monthly unemployment rates for a state or county. Data is returned in chronological order with year, period, and percentage value. Args: state: Two-letter US state abbreviation (e.g. 'WA', 'CA', 'NY'). county_fips: Optional 3-digit county FIPS code (e.g. '033' for King County). If provided, returns county-level data; otherwise state-level. start_year: Start year for data (default 2020, min 4-digit year). end_year: End year for data (default 2025).

Get labor force participation, employment, and unemployment counts for a state. Returns three time series: labor force size, employment count, and unemployment count. All values are in thousands of persons. Args: state: Two-letter US state abbreviation (e.g. 'WA', 'CA', 'NY'). start_year: Start year for data (default 2020). end_year: End year for data (default 2025).

Get national Consumer Price Index (CPI) data. Returns the CPI-U (All Urban Consumers, All Items) monthly time series. This is the headline CPI measure used for inflation tracking. Base period: 1982-84=100. Args: start_year: Start year for data (default 2020). end_year: End year for data (default 2025).

Get county-level unemployment rate, employment, and labor force data. Returns three time series for a specific county: unemployment rate (percent), employment count, and labor force size. Args: state: Two-letter US state abbreviation (e.g. 'WA', 'CA', 'NY'). county_fips: Three-digit county FIPS code as a string (e.g. '033' for King County, WA). start_year: Start year for data (default 2020). end_year: End year for data (default 2025).