2013 US Code
Title 29 - Labor
Chapter 4B - FEDERAL EMPLOYMENT SERVICE (§§ 49 - 49n)
Section 49 - United States Employment Service established

In order to promote the establishment and maintenance of a national system of public employment offices, the United States Employment Service shall be established and maintained within the Department of Labor.

(June 6, 1933, ch. 49, §1, 48 Stat. 113; Pub. L. 97–300, title VI, §601(a), formerly title V, §501(a), Oct. 13, 1982, 96 Stat. 1392; renumbered title VI, §601(a), Pub. L. 100–628, title VII, §712(a)(1), (2), Nov. 7, 1988, 102 Stat. 3248.)

1982—Pub. L. 97–300 substituted "the United States Employment Service shall be established and maintained within the Department of Labor" for "there is created in the Department of Labor a bureau to be known as the United States Employment Service".

Amendment by Pub. L. 97–300 effective Oct. 1, 1983, but with Secretary authorized to use funds appropriated for fiscal 1983 to plan for orderly implementation of amendment, see section 181(i) of Pub. L. 97–300, which was formerly classified to section 1591(i) of this title.

Act June 6, 1933, ch. 49, §16, formerly §15, as added by Pub. L. 97–300, title VI, §601(h), formerly title V, §501(h), Oct. 13, 1982, 96 Stat. 1397; renumbered title VI, §601(h), Pub. L. 100–628, title VII, §712(a)(1), (2), Nov. 7, 1988, 102 Stat. 3248; renumbered §16, Pub. L. 105–220, title III, §309(1), Aug. 7, 1998, 112 Stat. 1082, provided that: "This Act [enacting this chapter] may be cited as the 'Wagner-Peyser Act'."

Functions, powers, and duties of Secretary of Labor under this chapter, insofar as relates to prescription of personnel standards on a merit basis, transferred to Office of Personnel Management, see section 4728(a)(2)(A) of Title 42, The Public Health and Welfare.

Functions of all other officers of Department of Labor and functions of all agencies and employees of that Department were, with exception of functions vested by Administrative Procedure Act (see sections 551 et seq. and 701 et seq. of Title 5, Government Organization and Employees) in hearing examiners employed by such Department, transferred to Secretary of Labor, with power vested in him to authorize their performance or performance of any of his functions by any of those officers, agencies, and employees, by Reorg. Plan No. 6 of 1950, §§1, 2, 15 F.R. 3174, 64 Stat. 1263, set out in the Appendix to Title 5.

United States Employment Service transferred to Department of Labor, functions of Federal Security Administrator with respect to employment services, and Bureau of Employment Security transferred to Secretary of Labor by Reorg. Plan No. 2 of 1949, §1, eff. Aug. 20, 1949, 14 F.R. 5225, 63 Stat. 1065, set out in the Appendix to Title 5.

Section 1 of Reorg. Plan No. 2 of 1949, also provided that functions transferred by this section shall be performed by Secretary of Labor or, subject to his direction and control, by such officers, agencies, and employees of Department of Labor as he shall designate.

Act June 16, 1948, ch. 472, title I, 62 Stat. 446, provided in part that: "Effective July 1, 1948, the United States Employment Service, including its functions under title IV of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, is transferred to the Federal Security Agency, and on and after such date the functions of the Secretary of Labor with respect to the United States Employment Service are transferred to the Federal Security Administrator and shall be performed by him or, under his direction and control, by such officers and employees of the Federal Security Agency as he may designate. There are transferred to the Federal Security Agency, for use in connection with the functions transferred by the provisions of this paragraph, the personnel, property, and records of the Department of Labor related to the United States Employment Service, and the balances of such prior appropriations, allocations, and other funds available to the United States Employment Service as the Director of the Bureau of the Budget may determine. The provisions of section 9 of the Reorganization Act of 1945 (Public Law 263, Seventy-ninth Congress) shall apply to the transfer effected by this paragraph in like manner as if such transfer were a reorganization of the agencies and functions concerned under the provisions of that Act."

United States Employment Service and all functions of Social Security Board in Federal Security Agency relating to employment service transferred to War Manpower Commission by Ex. Ord. No. 9247, Sept. 17, 1942, 7 F.R. 7379. That Commission was terminated by Ex. Ord. No. 9617, Sept. 19, 1945, 10 F.R. 11929, and the United States Employment Service transferred to the Department of Labor.

Reorg. Plan No. I of 1939, §201, eff. July 1, 1939, 4 F.R. 2728, 53 Stat. 1424, set out in the Appendix to Title 5, Government Organization and Employees, consolidated United States Employment Service in Department of Labor and its functions and personnel, with other offices and agencies, under one agency to be known as Federal Security Agency with a Federal Security Administrator at head thereof.

Section 203 of Reorg. Plan No. I of 1939, provided that functions of United States Employment Service should be consolidated with unemployment compensation functions of Social Security Board and should be administered in Social Security Board in connection with unemployment compensation functions under direction and supervision of Federal Security Administrator.

Section 203 of Reorg. Plan No. I of 1939, further, abolished office of Director of United States Employment Service and transferred all functions of that office to Social Security Board, to be exercised by Board, and provided that functions of Secretary of Labor relating to administration of United States Employment Service should be transferred to, and exercised by, Federal Security Administrator.

Pub. L. 93–198, title II, §204(a), Dec. 24, 1973, 87 Stat. 783, provided that: "All functions of the Secretary of Labor (hereafter in this section referred to as the Secretary) under section 3 of the Act [section 49b of this title] entitled 'An Act to provide for the establishment of a national employment system and for cooperation with the States in the promotion of such system, and for other purposes', approved June 6, 1933 (29 U.S.C. 49–49k), with respect to the maintenance of a public employment service for the District [of Columbia], are transferred [effective July 1, 1974] to the Commissioner [of the District of Columbia established under Reorg. Plan No. 3 of 1967 (now the Mayor)]. After the effective date of this transfer [July 1, 1974], the Secretary shall maintain with the District the same relationship with respect to a public employment service in the District, including the financing of such service, as he has with the States (with respect to a public employment service in the States) generally."

Act July 3, 1948, ch. 823, §1, 62 Stat. 1238, authorized the Federal Security Administrator to recruit foreign workers within the Western Hemisphere and workers in Puerto Rico for temporary agricultural employment in the continental United States and to direct, supervise, coordinate, and provide for the transportation of those workers from such places of recruitment to and between places of employment within the continental United States and return to the places of recruitment not later than June 30, 1949.

Act July 3, 1948, ch. 823, §2, 62 Stat. 1239, appropriated $2,500,000, for fiscal year ending June 30, 1949, to carry out the purposes of section 1 of act July 3, 1948.

Act Apr. 28, 1947, ch. 43, §2, 61 Stat. 55, provided:

"(a) The provisions of the Farm Labor Supply Appropriation Act, 1944 (Public Law 229, Seventy-eighth Congress, second session, title I [sections 1351 to 1355 of Appendix to Title 50, War and National Defense]), as amended and supplemented, and as extended by this Act, shall not be construed to limit or interfere with any of the functions of the United States Employment Service or State public employment services with respect to maintaining a farm placement service as authorized under the Act of June 6, 1933 (48 Stat. 113) [this chapter].

"(b) The Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of Labor shall take such action as may be necessary to assure maximum cooperation between the agricultural extension services of the land-grant colleges and the State public employment agencies in the recruitment and placement of domestic farm labor and in the keeping of such records and information with respect thereto as may be necessary for the proper and efficient administration of the State unemployment compensation laws and of title V of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, as amended (58 Stat. 295)."