Labor launches new open data portal
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Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said the new portal features “better integration with other federal data sources and enhanced artificial intelligence compatibility for finding, visualizing and using data.”
The Labor Department on Wednesday publicly unveiled a modernized open data portal that it said would provide more granular access to U.S. workforce statistics.
In a press release, the agency said the new platform — which is currently operating in beta — “will replace its antiquated and cumbersome enforcement data page, which will be decommissioned on Feb. 23.”
Labor said the portal will provide access to a wider range of data than is currently available on its legacy platform, including statistics on weekly U.S. unemployment insurance claims, federal contractor veteran employment and county-level childcare prices.
“The department’s new data portal is a significant improvement, featuring better integration with other federal data sources and enhanced artificial intelligence compatibility for finding, visualizing and using data,” Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said in a statement. “This is a win for everyone — from data scientists and researchers to journalists and the general public — who want to understand our department’s work and enforcement actions.”
Notably, Labor said the platform includes access to its modern application programming interface that will allow users to retrieve machine-readable metadata and data through more tailored requests. Since it first soft-launched the portal in October 2024, the agency said “more than 1,400 users have registered for a free API account and queried the API over 5 million times.”
According to the portal’s “Getting Started” page, users will first need to authenticate with Login.gov and complete a registration process to receive an API key, with the website noting that “you need an API key for every request for metadata and data.”
Labor said the platform brings it into compliance with the OPEN Government Data Act, which “requires public government data assets to be published as machine-readable data, and each agency shall develop and maintain a comprehensive data inventory and designate a Chief Data Officer.”
Additionally, the agency said the open data portal aligns with the Federal Data Strategy, the government’s 10-year vision for accelerating the use of data to deliver on its mission and serve the American public.
Over the coming year, Labor said it also plans “to enhance the portal’s search capability, expand data sets, ensure AI integration, and add more tools to help users interact with the data.”