U.S. Employment Service: First 50 Years, 1933–1983

This article reviews some of the landmarks and trends during the first 50 years of the U.S. Employment Service. It was originally written as the introductory chapter of a longer paper, “The Occupational Information Needs and Functions of the Employment Security-Job Service,” which was submitted at the request of the Occupational Coordinating Council, Washington, D.C., March 1980. The purpose of the chapter was to describe the role and functions of the Employment Service and to show how the service could become more relevant during an age of computerized employment service operations involving highspeed electronic communications and retrieval systems. Under the Reagan administration, much of the federal-state employment service has been systematically dismantled. The Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) has been repealed and with it, large parts of the research, development, and counseling capacities have been wiped out. Only the great “supply side” depression of 1980–1983 saved the entire system from being demolished.