A basic Julia interface to pull data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics using their Public API here.

Register a Public Data API account on the BLS website here to receive an API key. Then, take advantage of the increased daily query limit and other features.

Basic usage:

using BlsData
b = Bls()
one_series = get_data(b, "LNS11000000")
one_series_catalog = get_data(b, "LNS11000000"; catalog=true)
multiple_series = get_data(b, ["LNS11000000", "PRS85006092"])

Simply run

julia> Pkg.add("BlsData")

The Bls type represents a connection to the BLS API.

Looks for a registration key in the file ~/.blsdatarc, or omits the registration key otherwise.

b = Bls()

Specify a registration key directly.

b = Bls(key="abc123")

Get and set fields.

api_url(b::Bls)                          # Get the base URL used to connect to the server
set_api_url(b::Bls, url::AbstractString) # Set the base URL used to connect to the server
api_key(b::Bls)                          # Get the API key
api_version(b::Bls)                      # Get the API version (v1 or v2) used
requests_made(b::Bls)                    # Get the number of requests made today
requests_remaining(b::Bls)               # Get the number of requests remaining today

Note that the requests made/remaining are calculated based on the lifetime of this object only and would not include those made in a distinct Julia session.

The BlsSeries type contains the data in a query response.

id(s::BlsSeries)                         # Get series ID
series(s::BlsSeries)                     # Get data as DataFrame
catalog(s::BlsSeries)                    # Get joined catalog strings

Request one or multiple series from the BLS API.

get_data{T<:AbstractString}(b::Bls, series::Union{T,Array{T,1}};
               startyear::Int = Dates.year(now()) - QUERY_LIMIT + 1,
               endyear::Int   = Dates.year(now()),
               catalog::Bool  = false)

• b: A Bls connection
• series: A string, or array of strings, identifying the time series
• startyear: A four-digit year identifying the start of the data request
• endyear: A four-digit year identifying the end of the data request
• catalog: Whether to return any available metadata about the series

Returns an object, or array of objects, of type BlsSeries.

The BLS mnemonics are somewhat obscure. You can attempt to build them programmatically by consulting this page.

The BLS API provides the following limits on requests:

BlsData.jl addresses these limits as follows:

• track daily query limit for reference
• make multiple requests under the hood, and concatenate results, for date ranges longer than limit
• make multiple requests under the hood, and concatenate results, for lists of series longer than limit (TO BE IMPLEMENTED)