The 2017 President’s Budget for the Bureau of Labor Statistics

The 2017 President’s Budget proposes $640.9 million in funding for the BLS for the fiscal year (FY) that begins on October 1, 2016. This FY 2017 request is an increase of $31.9 million over the FY 2016 final enacted level.

The 2017 Budget will continue the production of core data series while also allowing the BLS to undertake new initiatives.

2017 Budget Highlights

The 2017 President’s Budget for the BLS provides funding for inflationary costs and includes the following program changes:

• 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, workplace flexibility, and work-family balance issues.
• Fund first year activities for a Survey of Employer-Provided Training ($3 million). It has been more than twenty years since the last comprehensive survey of this nature. This survey will fill a key gap in knowledge about the workforce system by measuring the extent to which employers provide or sponsor job skills training for their workers.
• 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 2017 President’s Budget for the BLS may be viewed in full at http://www.dol.gov/general/budget/.

 

Last Modified Date: February 9, 2016