The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) of the United States Department of Labor is the principal fact-finding agency for the federal government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics. The BLS is an independent national statistical agency that collects, processes, analyzes, and disseminates essential statistical data to the American public, the US Congress, other federal agencies, state and local governments, business, and labor. The BLS also serves as a statistical resource to the Department of Labor.

The unemployment rate represents the number unemployed as a percent of the labor force.

Seasonally adjusted estimates are provided for total employment, unemployment, and the unemployment rate. Seasonal adjustment removes the effects of events that follow a more or less regular pattern each year, in order to make it easier to observe the cyclical and other nonseasonal movements in a data series. Data are from the LAUS program (Local Area Unemployment Statistics) program, a cooperative federal-state program that produces monthly and annual estimates of employment, unemployment, and the unemployment rate for over 7,000 geographic areas. The areas include census regions and divisions, states, metropolitan areas, metropolitan divisions, micropolitan areas, combined areas, small labor market areas, counties and county equivalents, cities with a population of 25,000 and over, and all cities and towns in New England regardless of population. The Census Bureau's Current Population Survey (CPS) data are a key input to the LAUS program methodology and have a significant impact on the estimates from the program. Together, the CPS and LAUS program estimates provide a consistent historical time series for employment and unemployment data at the national and state level.