Labor Market Politics and the Great War: The Department of Labor, the States, and the First U.S. Employment Service

The Department of Labor seized the opportunity provided by the chaotic labor market conditions during World War I to expand the US Employment Service (USES) and to establish control of the national labor market. That attempt provoked a reaction on the part of states that had created their own employment services and were suspicious of the administrative capacity of the USDES. A prolonged administrative and political struggle ensued, involving not only the Department of Labor and the states ...