The Employment Security Program (With Special Reference to Tennessee Unemployment Insurance)

Employment security was one of the major programs for which provision was made in the Social Security Act of 1935. Under its terms a tax program was instituted which encouraged the states to enact unemployment insurance laws and expand their employment services. The Act imposed a federal tax on the payrolls of subject employers against which such employers were permitted to offset the major part of the taxes which they paid under state unemployment insurance laws. Since employers in states which did not enact appropriate insurance laws were liable for the full federal tax, the states acted speedily to set up unemployment insurance programs.

Within less than two years after the passage of the Social Security Act, unemployment insurance laws had been enacted by all 51 jurisdictions, including the 48 states, the District of Columbia, Alaska and Hawaii. It is the purpose of this study to examine briefly the federal role in this program, then to analyze in some detail the state phase with emphasis upon the organizational patterns, legal requirements, administrative procedures and precedents related to unemployment insurance operations.