To effect its mission, the Department administers unemployment benefits and workers' compensation programs for the state of Wisconsin; ensures compliance with state laws on wages and discrimination; provides job resources, training, and employment assistance for job-seekers; and engages with employers to help them find and maintain adequate staffing for their businesses.

Finally, in 1883, Governor Jeremiah McLain Rusk, in his second annual message to the Legislature, endorsed the idea of a new state bureau to track industrial, agricultural, and labor statistics, saying, "The time has arrived when means should be provided for gathering accurate monthly crop and livestock reports during the growing season, and complete labor statistics, and their prompt circulation among the people.

This was followed, in 1887, with Wisconsin's first industrial safety law, which required fences or guards around gears, shafts, bull-wheels, and pulleys, (1887 Wisc.

Governor Francis E. McGovern appointed Joseph D. Beck as the first head of the commission, with commissioners John R. Commons and Charles H. Crownhart.

They passed the nation's first modern apprenticeship law, incorporating area vocational schools, training 625 apprentices in the first year.

Act 490) and became one of the first three states to prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, or ancestry.

Additional protections were added to the statute over time:[5] In 1945, the Apprenticeship Division of the Industrial Commission also became the state approval agency for veterans enrolling in training under the G.I.

[5] Following the passage of Social Security amendments in 1967, Wisconsin became the first state in the country to establish Work Incentive (WIN) programs in every county.

However the Department would continue to enforce occupational safety and health codes for public employees until 1982, as these jobs were not yet covered under OSHA.

[5] In 1994, Governor Tommy Thompson's Work First initiative attempts to divert more applicants from Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) to employment opportunities.

[5] Also in 1994, DILHR became one of the first state agencies to establish a presence on the internet, seeing it as a new avenue to provide job services, information, and assistance to the public.

[5] 2015 saw the introduction of the new Job Center of Wisconsin (JCW) website and the online Re-employment Services portal, for unemployment insurance claims management.

This includes adjudicating disputes, detecting fraud, collecting benefit overpayments, and administering the state's New Hire Reporting program.

[2] Separate from the ordinary organizational structure of the Department, there are a number of specific commissions created by acts of the Wisconsin Legislature to oversee, advise, or administer certain functions.

[1] By executive order, the governor of Wisconsin will from time-to-time appoint special committees to study a particular issue and advise the state.