Employment Security Department history

The organic act establishing the Department of Labor was signed on March 4, 1913, by a reluctant President William Howard Taft, the defeated and departing incumbent, just hours before Woodrow Wilson took office.

The Women's Bureau, a wartime agency which had been made a permanent bureau in 1920, promoted the welfare of working women, primarily through information dissemination.

In 1929, at the peak of the stock-market boom, the average per capita income of all salaried employees at work was only $1,475.

One of the principal Departmental programs for fighting the Depression was the Davis-Bacon Act of 1931, which fought wage slashing on federal construction projects by requiring that contractors match local rates.

In July 1933 she began a series of conferences on state labor legislation that continued annually for more that 20 years.

She also created the Bureau of Labor Standards in 1934 as a service agency and informational clearinghouse for state governments and other agencies to improve conditions of work.

The Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act of 1936 required that firms manufacturing goods for the government establish an 8-hour day and assure that the work would be done under safe and healthful conditions.

The 40-hour week has not changed since 1938, but the wage level has been raised numerous times and the coverage has broadened to include most salaried workers.

Unemployment benefits were first issued in Washington state in 1939.

Federal grants-in-aid are to be paid only on account of pensions granted to persons over 65 years of age but until January 1, 1940, States may maintain a 70-year age limit, which must thereafter be reduced to 65.

The minimum annuity payable to persons in whose behalf contributions are first paid in 1942 or subsequent thereto shall on retirement at age 65 or over and after 200 weekly contributions be 10 percent of the first $150 average monthly wages upon which contributions have been paid.

The FLSA was amended in 1955 to broaden coverage and raise the minimum wage from 75 cents to $1 per hour.

The Landrum-Griffin Act of 1959 required filing of reports on union funds with the Department of Labor, banned Communists from holding union office, and toughened restrictions on secondary boycotts by unions.

Thus, one of the required provisions of a State old-age pension law might be that in no event, prior to the year 1960, shall an annuity to which a person is entitled under the contributory annuity system be taken into account in determining the need of such person for assistance.

Under the Area Redevelopment Act of 1961 it provided training and assistance in regions of serious unemployment.

In 1962 the broader Manpower Development and Training Act gave the Department responsibility for identifying labor shortages, training the unemployed and sponsoring manpower research.

Through the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 the independent Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was established to enforce non-discrimination in the nation's workplaces.

In 1969 the Job Corps, which provided training for needy youths, was shifted from the Office of Economic Opportunity to the Department.

In 1970 the movement for a job safety and health law was successful, and the next year the Department established the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to enforce rules, or oversee state-run programs, to protect against hazards in most of the nation's workplaces.

In 1971 a Construction Industry Stabilization Committee within the Department began to oversee construction contract settlements, resulting in a moderating trend in annual wage increases.

In 1972, BLS assumed technical responsibility for the program and began to refine the concepts and methods used to estimate the labor force, employment, and unemployment at the subnational level.

In 1973, a new system for developing labor force estimates was introduced, combining the Handbook method with the concepts, definitions, and estimation controls from the Current Population Survey (CPS).

The Congress raised the minimum wage in stages to $2.30 an hour by January 1976 and coverage was initially extended to 1.5 million domestic workers.

The Youth Employment and Demonstration Projects Act of 1977 set up programs to assist young people.

In 1978 OSHA was joined by a sister agency, the Mine Safety and Health Administration, consisting largely of functions transferred from the Interior Department.

In January 1981 Ronald Reagan took office as President with a domestic agenda for economic recovery that emphasized reduced government spending and relief for business from burdensome government rules.

Beginning in 1989, Handbook estimation for the 39 non-direct-use states and the District of Columbia was discontinued in favor of time-series statistical modeling.

In 1994, in conjunction with a major redesign of the CPS, a second generation of time-series models was introduced, based on a "signal-plus-noise" approach.

Beginning with January 1996, labor force estimates for these subnational areas have been based on the time-series modeling approach used in the other 39 states and the District of Columbia.

Since the establishment of WorkSource in 1999, the business focus has been raised to an even higher level.

It initiated a "Work Force in the Year 2000" project to help make plans to meet future skilled labor needs.

In 2005, improved third-generation time-series estimates for modeled areas were introduced, along with real-time benchmarking of state estimates to the national CPS estimates.

In 2011, seasonal adjustment was introduced for nonmodeled metropolitan areas and metropolitan divisions.