Unlike World War I, the Department of Labor played a much smaller role in the World War II effort. It administered none of the special war labor agencies that were created. Still its contributions were notable. The Bureau of Labor Statistics served as the research arm for the Office of Price Administration, the War Labor Board and the Armed Forces. The Conciliation Service made its expertise available to the War Labor Board also. The Division of Labor Standards, the Women's Bureau and the Children's Bureau worked hard to see that labor standards were maintained in the face of labor shortages and enormous production pressures. In large part due to their efforts the nation's labor standards at the end of the war were not significantly impaired. After World War II ended, the prospect of millions of job-hungry veterans seeking employment before conversion to peacetime production was in full swing raised fears of massive unemployment. Unions sought to make well-deserved gains after enduring wage freezes imposed during the war. Workers were also prodded by the sharp inflation, fueled by pent-up consumer demand that followed the lifting of wartime price restrictions. Strike followed upon strike in such important sectors as railroads, coal, steel, autos and oil. With the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, the Department of Labor played a vital role in mobilizing manpower for defense production. Acting under a presidential order making the Secretary of Labor responsible for the wartime labor supply, Tobin created a Defense Manpower Administration to supervise and coordinate manpower activities of the Department. The Department's responsibilities ran the gamut of labor problems, from assuring an adequate supply of workers and seeing that skill levels were adequate, to promoting safety and health standards and minimizing losses due to work stoppages. The defense manpower problem faded away when hostilities in Korea ceased, but by the end of the Truman Administration in 1953 the program had dealt with important concerns such as the need for greater educational and skill levels and the need for better use of the capacities of women, older workers and minorities. For more on the history of the DOL, explore their history website at [ Ссылка ] . This is clipped from the 1963 US Department of Labor history film, CHALLENGE OF CHANGE. This 20 minutes film traces the history of the Labor Department from its inception in 1913. The film is available at the US National Archive in College Park, Maryland.

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