Why does the Census API not return fields/vars when it says it should?

Question

I am trying to retrieve the unemployment data for various US metros. The fields I am interested in are:

DP03_0009E
DP03_0009M
DP03_0009PE
DP03_0009PM

I know these fields exist as I am to query the metadata for the table and see these fields are present. For e.g.:

DP03_0009E :  {'label': 'EMPLOYMENT STATUS!!Civilian labor force!!Unemployment Rate', 'concept': 'SELECTED ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS', 'predicateType': 'int'}
DP03_0009M :  {'label': 'EMPLOYMENT STATUS!!Civilian labor force!!Unemployment Rate', 'concept': 'SELECTED ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS', 'predicateType': 'int'}
DP03_0009PE :  {'label': 'EMPLOYMENT STATUS!!Civilian labor force!!Unemployment Rate', 'concept': 'SELECTED ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS', 'predicateType': 'int'}
DP03_0009PM :  {'label': 'EMPLOYMENT STATUS!!Civilian labor force!!Unemployment Rate', 'concept': 'SELECTED ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS', 'predicateType': 'int'}

But When I try to retrieve these fields using the API for specific geographic region, for e.g. Dallas, I get a error: unknown variable 'DP03_0009P

Here is the call:

https://api.census.gov/data/2015/acs/acs1?get=NAME,DP03_0009E&for=metropolitan+statistical+area/micropolitan+statistical+area:19100

What am I missing? Any help would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

Your current call: https://api.census.gov/data/2015/acs/acs1? will be requesting detailed table data.

To request from a data profile, which includes DP03, please use this prefix instead: https://api.census.gov/data/2015/acs/acs1/profile?

For instance, in your example, this url seems to be pulling the information you are looking for: https://api.census.gov/data/2015/acs/acs1/profile?get=NAME,DP03_0009E,DP03_0009M,DP03_0009PE,DP03_0009PM&for=metropolitan+statistical+area/micropolitan+statistical+area:19100

Side note: Apparently, you can also get all of the variables contained within DP03 if you use this one as well: https://api.census.gov/data/2015/acs/acs1/profile?get=NAME,group(DP03)&for=metropolitan+statistical+area/micropolitan+statistical+area:19100