Interstate Aspects of Unemployment Insurance

State-operated systems of unemployment insurance, first instituted in the United States in Wisconsin in 1932, were set up in all of the states, and in the District of Columbia, Hawaii and Alaska within the two years following the enactment in 1935 of Titles III and IX of the Social Security Act.' Mutual problems of administration and of coordination among the various state programs led to a series of conferences of state officials charged with the operation of the systems. These early conferences were informal in nature, but steps were taken looking toward the creation of a formal organization. With the cooperation of the Social Security Board and other interested federal agencies, an Interstate Conference of Unemployment Compensation Agencies was established. Representatives of all of the states attended its first Annual Meeting in October, 1937.