The 2016 President’s Budget for the Bureau of Labor Statistics

The 2016 President’s Budget proposes $632.7 million in funding for the BLS for FY 2016 that begins on October 1, 2015. This request is an increase of $40.5 million over the FY 2015 final enacted level, and provides funding for inflationary costs, including those not funded within the FY 2015 enacted level.

The 2016 Budget level maintains the BLS core programs while also allowing the BLS to undertake new initiatives.

2016 Budget Highlights

The 2016 President’s Budget for the BLS includes the following program enhancements:

1. Add an Annual Current Population Survey Supplement ($1.6 million). This initiative will enhance the capability of the BLS to collect information relevant to labor force trends, including data on contingent work and alternative work arrangements, and workplace flexibility and work-family balance issues.
2. Expand Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) data ($6.5 million). In order to better understand U.S. labor market dynamics, this initiative will improve JOLTS data timeliness by releasing data at the same time as The Employment Situation, thereby allowing for contemporaneous analysis of the change in U.S. payroll jobs each month. This proposal also will enhance the relevance of JOLTS data by expanding the sample to provide both greater industry detail and State level data, and add depth by allowing for a series of focused questions on labor market issues.
3. Restore funding for the International Price Program (IPP) Export Price Indexes ($4.7 million). In FY 2014, the BLS announced plans to discontinue production and publication of the IPP Export Price Indexes to protect other more critical programs within its funding level. Subsequently, the BLS announced it would maintain these data through FY 2015. This initiative will restore funding to produce and publish the IPP Export Price indexes in FY 2016 and beyond. These indexes currently are used in the production of National Income and Product Accounts and in the calculation of real Gross Domestic Product. In addition, these indexes are used to help understand trends in U.S. real trade balances and competitiveness and issues such as the impact of exchange rate movements.
4. Support a Supplemental Statistical Poverty Measure ($2.5 million). This initiative will enable the BLS to support the Census Bureau in its development of a supplemental statistical poverty measure to complement the standard measure Census has been producing since the 1960s. As part of this initiative, the Consumer Expenditure (CE) Survey will develop and add questions to the Interview Survey, and accelerate to early August the delivery of the CE poverty thresholds to the Census Bureau to support the September release date of the income and poverty report.

The 2016 President’s Budget for the BLS may be viewed in full at http://www.dol.gov/dol/budget/.

Last Modified Date: February 2, 2015