Guide to the New York State Advisory Council On Placement And Unemployment Insurance, Chairman's Files,
1937-1951 [bulk 1942-1950].

The Council was first appointed by Governor Lehman in 1935. There were 9 members, three representing the public, three for the employers and three for labor. Dr. Gray, a professor in the Law School of New York University, was elected chairman. Its original function was to advise on an unemployment insurance law for N.Y. State. In 1949 it was assigned the task of the operation of the Division of Placement and Unemployment Insurance.

The collection is composed of the minutes of the meetings of the Council and related materials for the years 1942, 1947, 1948, 1949, and 1950, but it is not complete. It contains reports of the New York State Department of Labor on employment agencies and unemployment, and a number of pamphlets on the various aspects of unemployment insurance.

Major correspondents in the collection are Herman A. Gray (chairman, New York State Advisory Council on Placement and Unemployment Insurance), Edward Corsi (industrial commissioner, New York State Department of Labor), Milton O. Loysen (executive director, Division of Placement and Unemployment Insurance), Frieda S. Miller (industrial commissioner, New York State Department of Labor), Meredith B. Gwinn (director, Bureau of Research and Statistics), Lillian Chutroo, Nathan Morrison (acting executive secretary, State Advisory Council on Placement and Unemployment Insurance), Robert C. Goodwin (director, Federal Security Agency, Social Security Administration), and M. Joseph Tierney (director, New York State Employment Service). The collection includes compiled volumes of information (1949) on organization and operation of New York City offices of the New York State Employment Service (industrial, needle trades, shipbuilding, commercial, professional, sales, service, household); description of the functions and organization of the offices of the metropolitan director of the Employment Service, and director of the New York State Employment Service; and office managers' statements on the organization of the New York City offices of the employment service.

Also information on the reception process, the application process, the placement process, counseling, selective counseling; employer visiting and promotion, and labor union relations.

Materials relating to the New York State Department of Labor, Division of Placement and Unemployment Insurance include plans for expanding the Employment Service (1937); procedures for processing benefit claims (1937); and plans for expanding the Employment Service in metropolitan regions (1937).

Also minutes of the New York State Unemployment Insurance Advisory Council (1947-1949) and reports on merit rating (1939), experience rating (1940), postwar unemployment insurance (1944), collections and delinquencies (1943).

Other reports include that to the Social Security Administration, Bureau of Employment Security on the program of improving unemployment insurance office operations and establishing proper time factors; the report on unemployment insurance problems submitted to the Joint Legislative Committee on Industrial and Labor Conditions (1946); the record of a joint meeting of the Joint Legislative Committee on Unemployment Insurance and the State Advisory Council on Placement and Unemployment Insurance (1950); a report by the Social Security Administration on problems involved in the elimination of wage records; letters from Marion B. Folsom (Eastman Kodak Co.) regarding the farm placement situation; a Social Security Administration budget survey of the Division of Placement and Unemployment Insurance (1947), with a summary of the Division's operations; a report on the present system of unemployment in New York (1949); a report on the history and operations of the Miami claims office by the Division's Planning Office (1948); a report of the Division on employer payments and liabilities (1947); a report from M. Joseph Tierney (director of the Employment Service) to Milton O. Loysen on the application process (1948); the transcript of a meeting of the Committee on Amendments (1948); a speech by Milton O. Loysen on "How the Young-Demo Law Affects Business"; and relevant statistical and financial studies.