The Handbook of U.S. Labor Statistics is recognized as an authoritative resource on the U.S. labor force. It continues and enhances the Bureau of Labor Statistics's (BLS) discontinued publication, Labor Statistics. It allows the user to understand recent developments as well as to compare today's economy with past history. This edition includes a new chapter on the working poor as well as additional tables on consumer expenditures and occupational safety and health.

The Handbook is a comprehensive reference providing an abundance of data on a variety of topics including:

• Employment and unemployment;
• Earnings;
• Prices;
• Productivity;
• Consumer expenditures;
• Occupational safety and health;
• Union membership;
• International labor comparisons;
• And much more!

Features of the publication
In addition to over 215 tables that present practical data, the Handbook provides:

• Introductory material for each chapter that contains highlights of salient data and figures that call attention to noteworthy trends in the data
• Notes and definitions, which contain concise descriptions of the data sources, concepts, definitions, and methodology from which the data are derived
• References to more comprehensive reports which provide additional data and more extensive descriptions of estimation methods, sampling, and reliability measures

The 21st edition includes a new chapter titled “The Working Poor”. This chapter includes information on people who spent at least 27 weeks in the labor force but whose income still fell below the official poverty level. In addition, this edition includes several new tables on occupational safety and health, workplace fatalities, and consumer expenditures.