Labor Market: Key U.S. Employment Indicators & BLS Survey Benchmarks
A free, platform-curated reference to the key U.S. labor-market indicators and the BLS and DOL surveys behind them, compiled from official sources. Each record names the indicator, the survey and agency, what it measures, a key reference fact, and its release frequency. Built for economists, HR teams, and reporters who need dependable public-domain context on unemployment, job openings, and earnings with periods clearly marked.
{
"_type": "curated_open_data",
"as_of": "2026-07",
"links": {
"canonical": "https://verticalmarketplace.ai",
"docs_for_llms": "https://verticalmarketplace.ai/llms.txt",
"sell_your_own": "https://verticalmarketplace.ai/api/marketplace/listings",
"vertical_listings": "https://verticalmarketplace.ai/api/marketplace/listings?vertical=labor-market"
},
"records": [
{
"frequency": "Monthly",
"indicator": "Unemployment rate (U-3)",
"definition": "Share of the labor force jobless and actively seeking work",
"key_reference": "The headline unemployment measure",
"survey_agency": "BLS Current Population Survey"
},
{
"frequency": "Monthly",
"indicator": "U-6 rate",
"definition": "Broadest underutilization measure, adding discouraged and involuntary part-time workers",
"key_reference": "Wider than the headline U-3 rate",
"survey_agency": "BLS Current Population Survey"
},
{
"frequency": "Monthly",
"indicator": "Labor force participation rate",
"definition": "Share of the civilian noninstitutional population aged 16+ in the labor force",
"key_reference": "Employed plus actively seeking work",
"survey_agency": "BLS Current Population Survey"
},
{
"frequency": "Monthly",
"indicator": "Employment-population ratio",
"definition": "Employed share of the population aged 16 and over",
"key_reference": "Complements the participation rate",
"survey_agency": "BLS Current Population Survey"
},
{
"frequency": "Monthly",
"indicator": "Nonfarm payroll employment",
"definition": "Net jobs added or lost, excluding farm, household, and military jobs",
"key_reference": "Released in the Employment Situation on the first Friday of the month",
"survey_agency": "BLS Current Employment Statistics"
},
{
"frequency": "Monthly",
"indicator": "Job openings",
"definition": "Unfilled positions on the last business day of the month",
"key_reference": "Core measure of labor demand",
"survey_agency": "BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey"
},
{
"frequency": "Monthly",
"indicator": "Quits rate",
"definition": "Voluntary separations as a percent of employment",
"key_reference": "A gauge of worker confidence",
"survey_agency": "BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey"
},
{
"frequency": "Monthly",
"indicator": "Average hourly earnings",
"definition": "Average pay of private nonfarm employees",
"key_reference": "Watched for wage-growth trends",
"survey_agency": "BLS Current Employment Statistics"
},
{
"frequency": "Quarterly",
"indicator": "Employment Cost Index (ECI)",
"definition": "Change in total compensation, including wages and benefits",
"key_reference": "Less affected by workforce mix shifts than average earnings",
"survey_agency": "BLS Employment Cost Index"
},
{
"frequency": "Weekly",
"indicator": "Initial unemployment claims",
"definition": "New claims filed for unemployment insurance",
"key_reference": "Timely weekly signal, released Thursdays",
"survey_agency": "DOL Employment and Training Administration"
},
{
"frequency": "Quarterly",
"indicator": "Labor productivity",
"definition": "Output produced per hour worked",
"key_reference": "Key driver of long-run living standards",
"survey_agency": "BLS Productivity program"
},
{
"frequency": "Set by statute",
"indicator": "Federal minimum wage",
"definition": "The statutory federal wage floor under the Fair Labor Standards Act",
"key_reference": "$7.25 per hour since July 24, 2009",
"survey_agency": "DOL Wage and Hour Division"
},
{
"frequency": "Monthly",
"indicator": "Prime-age participation rate",
"definition": "Labor force participation of adults aged 25 to 54",
"key_reference": "Reduces the effect of aging and schooling",
"survey_agency": "BLS Current Population Survey"
}
],
"sources": [
{
"url": "https://www.bls.gov/",
"name": "U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics"
},
{
"url": "https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta",
"name": "U.S. Department of Labor — Employment and Training Administration"
}
],
"category": "benchmarks",
"vertical": "labor-market",
"data_note": "All records are public-domain facts compiled from the cited sources as of the asOf date. This content is authored and served by the platform itself — it is not seller data, so the marketplace's zero-storage promise about seller datasets is unaffected.",
"record_count": 13,
"what_this_is": "A platform-published open-data listing curated by Open Data Desk, the marketplace's in-house public-data seller. It is real free inventory: it counts in marketplace statistics and is purchasable for $0 through the normal purchase flow, which delivers this payload with an Ed25519-signed receipt.",
"record_schema": {
"frequency": "Release frequency",
"indicator": "Name of the labor-market indicator",
"definition": "What the indicator measures",
"key_reference": "A key definitional or statutory fact",
"survey_agency": "Survey and agency that produces it"
},
"buyer_use_cases": [
"Anchor labor dashboards to authoritative indicator definitions",
"Support workforce planning and reporting with citable BLS facts",
"Ground research and briefings in official survey methodology"
]
}The full dataset is delivered after purchase. Fingerprint: sha256:41c8663a66eaad604b3c0d08b43c2d2a70bf7d3b1847f8c4dd2a277334c0a940
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- No reselling or re-listing the purchased data on this or any other marketplace
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