New York State Division of Employment Executive Director's Subject Files

Files are arranged in broad subject categories or by administrative unit within the division.

A Division of Employment was created in the State Department of Labor when the department was reorganized and the Industrial Commission established by Chapter 674 of the Laws of 1915. When the state enacted an unemployment insurance law (Laws of 1935, Chapter 468) in response to the federal Social Security Act of 1935, the Division of Placement and Unemployment Insurance was created in the Department of Labor to oversee its administration. In 1953, the division was renamed the Division of Employment, but continued to administer the state Unemployment Insurance Law and the state public employment service program.

These records document the administrations of Division of Employment Executive Directors Milton O. Loysen (1940-1952), Richard C. Brockway (1954-1957), and Alfred L. Green (1961-1971). Files document a broad spectrum of subjects relating to unemployment insurance including state opposition to proposed federalization of the social security program; federal leadership in the development of state unemployment insurance administration programs; the Joint Legislative Committee to Investigate Unemployment Insurance (1939); detection and deterrence of unemployment insurance fraud; eligibility of union-represented employees involved in labor disputes to receive unemployment insurance benefits; proposed legislation to improve the Federal-State unemployment insurance system; and eligibility of employees of non-profit organizations to receive unemployment insurance benefits.

Approximately 13 cubic feet of the series documents the participation of the Division of Placement and Unemployment Insurance and later the Division of Employment in the Interstate Conference of Employment Security Agencies (ICESA). The ICESA was founded in 1937 to facilitate interstate cooperation and support in administering new unemployment insurance programs. ICESA documents span nearly the entire period documented by the record series and include executive and subcommittee reports and meeting minutes, studies, press releases, and resolutions.

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