Accessing Economic Data via APIs: FRED, BLS, BEA & More

Why Use Data APIs?

APIs let you:

• Automate data updates
• Build dashboards
• Backtest strategies
• Create custom analyses

FRED API

Overview

The most popular economic data API.

• Endpoint: api.stlouisfed.org
• Cost: Free
• Rate Limit: 120 requests/minute
• IQ Score: 97

Getting Started

• Register at fred.stlouisfed.org

• Get API key (instant)

• Start querying

Key Endpoints

\\\`

GET /fred/series/observations

GET /fred/series/search

GET /fred/category/series

GET /fred/releases

\\\`

Example Request

\\\`bash

curl "https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred/series/observations?series_id=GDP&api_key=YOUR_KEY&file_type=json"

\\\`

Python Example

\\\`python

import fredapi

fred = fredapi.Fred(api_key='YOUR_KEY')

gdp = fred.get_series('GDP')

\\\`

BLS API

Overview

Direct access to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

• Endpoint: api.bls.gov
• Cost: Free (registration recommended)
• Rate Limits: 500/day unregistered, 2000/day registered

Version 2.0 (Registered)

Benefits:

• Higher rate limits
• 20 years of data (vs 10)
• Net/percent calculations
• Annual averages

Key Series Formats

• Employment: CES series
• CPI: CUUR/CUSR series
• Unemployment: LNS series

Example Request

\\\`python

import requests

headers = {'Content-type': 'application/json'}

data = {

"seriesid": ['CUUR0000SA0', 'LNS14000000'],

"startyear": "2020",

"endyear": "2024",

"registrationkey": "YOUR_KEY"

}

response = requests.post(

'https://api.bls.gov/publicAPI/v2/timeseries/data/',

json=data, headers=headers

)

\\\`

BEA API

Overview

Bureau of Economic Analysis—GDP, personal income, trade.

• Endpoint: apps.bea.gov/api
• Cost: Free
• Registration: Required

Key Datasets

• NIPA: National Income and Product Accounts
• Regional: State/metro economic data
• International: Trade and investment

Example Request

\\\`

https://apps.bea.gov/api/data/?UserID=YOUR_KEY&method=GetData&DataSetName=NIPA&TableName=T10101&Frequency=Q&Year=2024

\\\`

Census API

Overview

Demographic and economic surveys.

• Endpoint: api.census.gov
• Cost: Free
• Key Required: Yes

Key Datasets

• ACS: American Community Survey
• CBP: County Business Patterns
• Trade: Import/export data

Data.gov APIs

Many federal agencies expose data through Data.gov:

• EPA environmental data
• USDA agricultural data
• HUD housing data

Rate Limiting Best Practices

Respect Limits

Caching

• Store responses locally
• Check release schedules
• Only fetch updates

Error Handling

\\\`python

import time

def fetch_with_retry(url, max_retries=3):

for i in range(max_retries):

response = requests.get(url)

if response.status_code == 200:

return response.json()

elif response.status_code == 429:

time.sleep(60) # Rate limited

else:

time.sleep(2 ** i) # Exponential backoff

raise Exception("Max retries exceeded")

\\\`

DataSetIQ Advantage

Instead of juggling multiple APIs:

• One search across all sources
• IQ scores for quality assessment
• Pre-cleaned, standardized data
• Instant downloads

Finding Series IDs

Use DataSetIQ to:

• Search for the data you need

• Find the official series ID

• Use that ID in direct API calls

Common Pitfalls

Date Formatting

• FRED: YYYY-MM-DD
• BLS: Varies by endpoint
• BEA: Various formats

Vintage Data

Data gets revised. Specify vintage for reproducibility:

• FRED has vintage dates
• Most APIs return current values only

Frequency Aggregation

Know how data is aggregated:

• Average, sum, end-of-period
• Seasonal adjustment
• Annualized vs actual

All data sources indexed on DataSetIQ—search once, find the right series instantly.