Using Machine Learning To Automate Data Coding At The Bureau Of Labor Statistics (BLS)

Government agencies are awash in documents. Many of these documents are paper-based, but even for the electronic documents a human is still often needed to process and understand those documents to make use of them for vital services. Federal agencies are increasingly looking to AI to help improve those document and human-bound processes by applying advanced machine learning, neural network, and natural language processing (NLP) technologies. While for many these technologies might be fairly new in their organization, in some government agencies, they have been using that technology for many years, augmenting and enhancing various workflows and tasks. In the case of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the agency is mandated to conduct a Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses to determine workplace injuries and help guide policy.