Overview
Jobs Report sources data directly from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the official source for US employment statistics. Data includes the household survey (unemployment rate) and establishment survey (nonfarm payrolls) going back to 1948.
Live Test US Jobs Report Source →
Formula
One function covers the whole catalog: the first argument names the source, the rest are its inputs, and the "field" pair says which single value lands in the cell. Formulas covers the grammar that applies to all of them.
=VERVE("jobsreport", "field", "yearMonth")=VERVE.CALL("jobsreport", "field", "yearMonth")Inputs
Required inputs are positional, in the order below. Everything else is passed as a "name", value pair after them — the same shape as SUMIFS. Premium inputs are accepted on every plan but only take effect on plans that include them.
| Input | Type | Where it goes | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
dateOptionalPremium | string | "date", value | Optional date in YYYY-MM format for historical lookup. Omit for current data. date |
Passing an option
=VERVE("jobsreport", "date", "2023-06")=VERVE.CALL("jobsreport", "date", "2023-06")What lands in your sheet
The "field" pair is what makes the formula resolve to one cell. Its value is a dot-path from the table below, so swapping it is how you pull a different value — one formula per column.
Seeing everything at once
Drop the "field" pair and the formula returns the whole response instead: two columns, field name on the left and value on the right, spilling from the cell you typed in.
=VERVE("jobsreport")=VERVE.CALL("jobsreport")The second row's table would land on top of the first's, and every cell after the first reads #REF! (#SPILL! in Excel). Keep one per sheet, or name a field, and leave the cells below and to the right empty.
Response fields
Paths are relative to data. Each one is exactly what the "field" pair accepts, so swapping it is how you pull a different value into a cell. On a plan without a Premium field the cell reads #PREMIUM(field) rather than a value, so a locked field never looks like a real answer.
| Use as "field" | Type | Example cell value | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
yearMonth | string | 2024-01 | Report date in YYYY-MM format (e.g. 2024-01) |
year | number | 2024 | Year of the employment report |
month | number | 1 | Month of the employment report (1-12) |
jobsChangeDirection | string | growth | Direction of job change: 'growth', 'decline', or 'unchanged' |
summary | object | {…} | Headline labor-market figures: unemployment, participation, employment totals and the monthly jobs change |
summary.unemploymentRate | number | 3.7 | National unemployment rate as percentage |
summary.laborForceParticipation | number | 62.5 | Labor force participation rate as percentage |
summary.totalEmployedPremium | number | 161152000 | Total number of employed persons |
summary.totalUnemployedPremium | number | 6124000 | Total number of unemployed persons |
summary.laborForcePremium | number | 167276000 | Total labor force size (sum of employed and unemployed persons) |
summary.jobsChange | number | 353000 | Net change in nonfarm payroll jobs from the prior month; positive for growth, negative for decline, 0 for no change |
nonfarmPayrolls | object | {…} | Nonfarm payroll employment, total and private sector |
nonfarmPayrolls.totalPremium | number | 157245000 | Total number of employees on nonfarm payrolls |
nonfarmPayrolls.privatePremium | number | 133567000 | Number of employees on private-sector (non-government) nonfarm payrolls |
bySector | object | {…} | Employment by industry sector |
bySector.miningPremium | number | 645000 | Number of persons employed in the mining and logging sector |
bySector.constructionPremium | number | 8123000 | Number of persons employed in the construction sector |
bySector.manufacturingPremium | number | 12987000 | Number of persons employed in the manufacturing sector |
bySector.tradeTransportUtilitiesPremium | number | 29456000 | Number of persons employed in the trade, transportation & utilities sector |
bySector.informationPremium | number | 2987000 | Number of persons employed in the information sector |
bySector.financialActivitiesPremium | number | 9234000 | Number of persons employed in the financial activities sector |
bySector.professionalBusinessPremium | number | 22876000 | Number of persons employed in the professional & business services sector |
bySector.educationHealthPremium | number | 25678000 | Number of persons employed in the education & health services sector |
bySector.leisureHospitalityPremium | number | 16789000 | Number of persons employed in the leisure & hospitality sector |
bySector.otherServicesPremium | number | 5892000 | Number of persons employed in the other services sector |
bySector.governmentPremium | number | 23678000 | Number of persons employed in the government sector |
topSectorPremium | string | Trade, Transport & Utilities | Sector with highest employment count |
formatted | object | {…} | Employment figures as abbreviated strings (e.g. 160.97M) |
formatted.totalEmployedPremium | string | 161.15M | Human-readable format of total employed (e.g 161.15M) |
formatted.totalUnemployedPremium | string | 6.12M | Human-readable format of total unemployed (e.g 6.12M) |
formatted.laborForcePremium | string | 167.28M | Human-readable format of labor force size |
formatted.jobsChangePremium | string | +353.0K | Human-readable format of jobs change (e.g +353.0K) |
formatted.nonfarmPayrollsPremium | string | 157.25M | Human-readable format of nonfarm payrolls |
When a cell doesn't fill
A failed lookup returns readable text starting with #ERR rather than a spreadsheet error, because Excel cannot show a custom message on a real error — you would get a bare #VALUE! with no reason. The trade-off is that IFERROR() will not catch it; test with LEFT(cell, 4) = "#ERR" instead. Error handling covers the rest.
| Cell reads | What happened |
|---|---|
#ERR Not connected | No API key saved. Open the side panel and connect your account. |
#ERR Replace <name> with a cell or value | A preview formula was copied as-is. Swap the placeholder for a cell reference. |
#ERR No "x" in jobsreport | An option name this source does not take. The message lists the ones it does. |
#ERR No data point "…" | The "field" path is not in the response. Check it against the table above. |
#PREMIUM(field) | The field exists but your plan does not include it. |
#ERR Out of credits | The cycle's credits are spent. Usage resets on your billing date. |
Before the formula works
The add-in reads the API key you saved once in the side panel — the key never goes in the formula, so a shared sheet does not leak it and a collaborator without access simply sees the last calculated values.
- Install the add-in for Google Sheets or Excel.
- Open the side panel and sign in, or paste a key from your dashboard.
- Type the formula above into any cell.
Use cases
- Economic Monitoring
- Track monthly employment trends as a key economic indicator
- Labor Market Analysis
- Analyze employment by sector for industry research
- Investment Research
- Factor employment data into economic and market analysis
- Policy Research
- Study employment trends for economic policy research
Other ways to use US Jobs Report
Set up US Jobs Report on VerveSheets, or reach the same source a different way. Your VerveSheets account and credits work on all of them — one key, one balance.
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