Even though the future of Data.gov remains uncertain in these troubled economic times, many individual government agencies are still moving forward with President Obama's mandate to make the U.S. federal government more transparent by making government data accessible online. The U.S. Department of Labor API makes it easier for software developers to incorporate Labor Department data into online and mobile applications.

"While a handful of other federal agencies are making data available through one or more APIs, the inclusion of SDKs is a federal first," said Deputy Secretary of Labor Seth Harris in the department's press release. "By doing so, we're lowering the technical barriers and providing developers of all experience levels the opportunity to turn good ideas into powerful software applications for the American public," Harris said.

The new developer site includes access to data ranging from employment and wage data gathered by the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics to details of inspections conducted by the department's Wage and Hour Division and its Occupational Safety and Health Administration via RESTful APIs with responses in XML and JSON--including SDKs for .NET and Ruby, and mobile SDKs for iOs, Android, Blackberry and Windows 7 Phone.

The site is part of the Labor Department's ongoing efforts to increase transparency, participation and collaboration through the administration's Open Government Initiative, and the agency is committed to adding new data sets every week.