Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey
Welcome to the step-by-step guide on how to use the Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey one-screen query system
Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey: The Current Population Survey (CPS) is a monthly survey of households conducted by the Bureau of Census for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It provides a comprehensive body of demographic data on the labor force, employment, unemployment, and persons not in the labor force.
This tool lets users query the BLS databases for specific data series. For each survey and program, make a selection for each characteristic in the order listed. As you make your selection, the remaining characteristics will filter to show only choices where data are available. After choosing the series, click on "Add to selection." If you need more data series, repeat the steps of choosing the data series you need. After you've finished finding the data series you need, click on the "Get Data" button to retrieve the data, and an HTML table with data for the most recent 10 years will display . If you desire a different time period or format, you may modify the options on the data display page, or click on the "More Formatting Options" button for additional options on refining the data retrieval results. Note: Users may not retrieve more than 200 data series in one query.
Click on one or more of the options shown to select Both sexes, Men, or Women. The options for the remaining characteristics will change to show you which data series are available.
Click on one or more of the options shown to select race. For example, All races, White, Black or African American, Asian, etc. The options for the remaining characteristics will change to show you which data series are available. To select multiple options, hold the Ctrl/Command button, and click the desired options.
Click on one of the options shown to select All origins, or persons of Hispanic or Latino ethnicity. The options for the remaining characteristics will change to show you which data series are available. To select multiple options, hold the Ctrl/Command button, and click the desired options.
Click on one or more of the options shown to select age. The options for the remaining characteristics will change to show you which data series are available. You must select age 25 years and over to choose data by education. To select multiple options, hold the Ctrl/Command button, and click the desired options.
You must select age 25 years and over to choose data by education. Click on one or more of the options shown to select educational attainment. The options for the remaining characteristics will change to show you which data series are available.
Click on one or more of the options shown to select marital status. Note than most of these series are available for men and women, but not for both sexes. To select multiple options, hold the Ctrl/Command button, and click the desired options.
Click on one or more of the options shown to select labor force status.
Seasonal adjustment is a statistical technique that attempts to measure and remove the influences of predictable seasonal patterns from time series data. Seasonally adjusted data contain this type of adjustment to enable comparisons of data across any point in time. Not seasonally data have no such adjustment.
Check one or both boxes for "Monthly" or "Quarterly" data series. Annual averages are stored with the not seasonally adjusted monthly data. Some series are available only as annual averages.
You must make a selection for each of the characteristics in the order listed. Once you have selected all of the characteristics, the "Add to selection" button becomes active. Click the "Add to selection" button to list the selected data series in the "Your Selection" box. You can return to the characteristic boxes and make new selections to request additional data series. Click the "Get Data" button to retrieve all the selected data series.
You must make a selection for each of the characteristics in the order listed. Once you have selected all of the characteristics, the "Get Data" button becomes active. Click to retrieve the data.
Some series are available only as annual averages. For series available monthly, the annual averages are stored with the not seasonally adjusted monthly data. To obtain those annual averages, you must first retrieve the monthly not seasonally adjusted data, then check the "include annual averages" box above the data output.
Last Modified Date: February 20, 2018
United States Department of Labor
