Six Programs

• Employment and Unemployment: This program keeps track of the U.S. labor force and non-farm payroll statistics through the Current Population Survey and the Current Employment Statistics Survey. It also produces comprehensive information about unemployment, employment and wage data by Census regions and divisions, States, counties, metropolitan areas, and many cities, by place of residence. The program gathers, organizes and analyses information on mass layoffs, job openings and labor turnover. The official unemployment rate is a key macroeconomic measure generated under this program.


• Prices and Living Conditions: This program mainly focuses on information about prices in the economy. Assorted price indexes, including Consumer Price Indexes, Producer Price Indexes, and the Import/Export Price Indexes are all under the responsibility of the program. Also, the program collects data on the buying habits of consumers by socioeconomic characteristics through the Consumer Expenditure Survey.


• Compensation and Working Conditions: This program collects earnings data differentiated by worker characteristics, employer characteristics, and geographic area through the National Compensation Survey. The Safety and Health Statistics Division gathers data on illnesses and injuries on the job and data on worker fatalities. The program is in charged of producing data on major work stoppages (lockout and strike) and collective bargaining agreements.


• Productivity and Technology: This program collects data and produces several indexes for industries and major sectors of the economy that relate output to labor, capital, and other inputs. The Foreign Statistics Division of this program collects comparative information by country on productivity and unit labor costs.


• Employment Projections: This program collects data and produces projected estimates of conditions in the labor market and economy ten years into future. The Occupational Outlook Handbook produced by this program contains valuable career information on jobs, working conditions, training and education needed, earnings, and expected job prospects in a wide range of occupations.


• International Programs: These assorted programs collect information from other countries about productivity and unit labor costs, compensation, labor force, employment, and unemployment, consumer and producer prices, and labor statistics.

Three Committees

• Business Research Advisory Council: This council advises the BLS from the point of view of various sectors of the business community on technical matters related to the collection, tabulation, and analysis of Bureau statistics.


• Labor Research Advisory Council: This council advises the BLS with respect to technical issues about the statistical work of the Bureau. Also, it provides advice about Bureau programs in relation to labor union needs.


• Federal Economics Statistics Advisory Committee: This committee inspects BLS programs and provides advice on statistical methodology, research, and other technical matters related to the collection, tabulation, and analysis of economic statistics. This committee also advises the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Bureau of the Census.