LABSTAT is the Bureau of Labor Statistics' official database, available through Anonymous FTP and gopher. For a direct link to the LABSTAT gopher menu,
click here. For more information, please read the following documentation.
List of Databases
LABSTAT provides current and historical data for 26 surveys, as well as numerous press releases. LABSTAT on the Internet is composed of individual databases (in flat file format) corresponding to each of the surveys. These survey-specific databases are identified by a two-character survey name abbreviation, as listed below.
AP Average Price Data
BG Collective Bargaining-State & Local Gov't
BP Collective Bargaining-Private Sector
CU Consumer Price Index-All Urban Consumers
CW Consumer Price Index-Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers
EB Employee Benefits Survey
EC Employment Cost Index
EE Employment, Hours, & Earnings-National
EI International Price Index
EIS Special Export Comparison Index
EP Employment Projections by Industry
GP Geographic Profile
HS Occupational Injury & Illness Rates
IN International Labor Statistics
LA Local Area Unemployment Statistics
LI Department Store Inventory Price Index
MP Major Sector Multifactor Productivity Index
PC Producer Price Index Revision-Current Series
PD Producer Price Index Revision-Discontinued Series
PF Federal Government Productivity Index
PI Industry Labor Productivity Index
PR Major Sector Productivity & Costs Index
SA State & Area Employment, Hours, & Earnings
SH Occupational Injury and Illness Rates
WP Producer Price Index
WS Work Stoppage Data
Directory Structure and Files
LABSTAT is divided into a number of directories and sub-directories.
/pub and its sub-directores contain all the data.
/time.series and its sub-directories contain the survey-specific
historical time series. All survey-specific directories (i.e.,
/ap.../ws) contain:
xx.series: Series-level data.
xx.data.0-n: Observation-level data, which may be
partitioned, depending on the size of the
files.
xx.map: Survey-specific mapping files, which relate
codes to meaningful names (e.g., State code
and State name).
xx.doc: Documentation for individual surveys,
including a survey description, the table
structure, information on data partitioning,
and definitions of data elements.
/news.release contains the two most recent releases for all BLS news
releases, as well as documentation.
/doc contains all the survey-specific documentation, the news
release documentation, and this overview.
LABSTAT Database Documentation
The LABSTAT database documentation is designed to be a reference tool for users of the LABSTAT system. The documentation for each database consists of three sections:
Narrative: A brief discription of the survey, and the data
available.
Table Structure: Individual data elements are stored in tables.
The Table Structure for each database provides the
names of the tables, and the individual data
elements stored in each table.
Database Elements: The Database Elements section provides information
about the individual data elements, including field
length, valid values, and description for each data
element.
LABSTAT News Release Documentation
The BLS news releases available on the Internet provide reports on the findings of several BLS programs along with national indicators such as the Employment Situation and the Consumer Price Index. Each news release is in ASCII text format and sub-divided into three sections:
- The first section includes the table of contents, which provides a detailed outline of the contents of the news release, along with the dates and times on which the news releases are made available and the contacts to call if users have any questions regarding the data;
- The second section includes text used to explain the data produced in that period and the methodologies used in deriving the data;
- The third section includes all the pertinent tables showing the data collected during that period.
LABSTAT Help
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