Texas Workforce Commission

Originally created to administer the unemployment insurance provisions of the federal Social Security Act of 1935, the Texas Workforce Commission (after two name changes) has expanded its functions, and is now charged with overseeing and providing workforce development services to employers and job seekers of Texas.

Since 1933, as a result of the Hundred Days' legislation of the New Deal, a federal-state system of employment offices had been in effect throughout the United States, with quite a bit of autonomy for the state programs. After considerable evolution of the program, the Texas Unemployment Compensation Commission was created in 1936 (Senate Bill 5, 44th Texas Legislature, 3rd Called Session), to administer the unemployment insurance provisions of the federal Social Security Act of 1935. The initial function of the commission was to collect all contributions from employers and to pay benefits to the unemployed. This agency was renamed the Texas Employment Commission in 1947 (House Bill 741, 50th Texas Legislature, Regular Session).

In 1995 the legislature abolished the Texas Employment Commission (House Bill 1863, 74th Texas Legislature, Regular Session) and replaced it with the new Texas Workforce Commission, which consolidated 28 job training, employment, and employment-related education programs that formerly had been implemented by ten state agencies. The law specified the following goals for the new agency: helping develop a highly skilled and productive workforce for businesses; providing workers with the education, skills training, and labor market information they need to enhance employability, earnings, and standard of living; providing an efficient unemployment compensation system; easing the transition into the workforce of persons receiving public assistance, homemakers needing to enter the job market, and former students; helping communities provide economic incentive programs for the creation and expansion of jobs; and maximizing the efficient and effective spending of tax revenues earmarked for workforce development. As part of a local/state network, 28 local workforce boards assist the commission in its work.

The governing board for the Workforce Commission and its predecessors has always been composed of three members: a representative of labor, a representative of employers, and a representative of the general public. Holding full-time, salaried positions, they are appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the senate for overlapping six-year terms. Originally, the public (or impartial ) member was the chair, and at first that chair was the executive director of the agency. Beginning in 1995, the governor names the chair for a two-year term, and the executive director is hired by the commission.

(Sources include: Guide to Texas State Agencies, 11th edition (2001); the agency web site (http://www.twc.state.tx.us/twcinfo/whatis.html) ; the article on Texas Employment Commission by John G. Johnson, in The Handbook of Texas Online ; the Texas Labor Code, Sections 301.001 and following (all three websites accessed October 2008); and the enabling legislation, 1936, 1947, 1995.)

From the guide to the Workforce Commission meeting files, 1936-2008, (Texas State Archives)