<P> The purpose of the Department of Labor is to foster, promote, and develop the wellbeing of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work - related benefits and rights . In carrying out this mission, the Department of Labor administers and enforces more than 180 federal laws and thousands of federal regulations . These mandates and the regulations that implement them cover many workplace activities for about 10 million employers and 125 million workers . </P> <P> The Department's headquarters is housed in the Frances Perkins Building, named in honor of Frances Perkins, the Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945 . </P> <P> The U.S. Congress first established a Bureau of Labor Statistics in 1884 with the Bureau of Labor Act, to collect information about labor and employment . This bureau was under the Department of the Interior . The Bureau started collecting economic data in 1884, and published their first report in 1886 . Later, the Bureau of Labor became an independent Department of Labor but lacked executive rank . It became a bureau again within the Department of Commerce and Labor, which was established February 15, 1903 . President William Howard Taft signed the March 4, 1913 (the last day of his presidency) bill, establishing the Department of Labor as a Cabinet - level Department . William B. Wilson was appointed as the first Secretary of Labor on March 5, 1913 by President Wilson . Secretary Wilson chaired the first meeting of the International Labour Organization in October 1919, even though the U.S. was not yet a member . </P> <P> The Federal Employees' Compensation Act, signed Sept. 7, 1916, provided benefits to workers who are injured or contract illnesses in the workplace . The act established an agency responsible for federal workers' compensation, which was transferred to the Labor Department in the 1940s and is today known as the Office of Workers' Compensation Programs . </P>

When was the us department of labor created