Five decades of labor budget authority — and the recession spikes.
DOL's total budget authority, FY1976–FY2031, from OMB's Historical Tables. The Department of Labor was established in 1913, but OMB Table 5.2 reports agency budget authority only from FY1976 forward — so this is the modern reported history, not the department's full lifetime. This is total agency budget authority — overwhelmingly mandatory, led by the Unemployment Trust Fund — and its signature is the recession SPIKE, not a smooth climb.
FY2027 budget authority
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nominal · OMB estimate
Peak year
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Series span
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0 fiscal years
Years parsed
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contiguous, numeric — self-checked
DOL total budget authority — the arc since 1976
nominal (current $) · OMB Historical Table 5.2 · mandatory-dominatedReading the arc
DOL's arc is not the steady, compounding climb of a pure entitlement department — it is jagged. Because most of the budget is the Unemployment Trust Fund, the line tracks the labor market: it jumps in recessions when unemployment claims surge and recedes in recoveries. The Great Recession (FY2009) stepped it up; the COVID-19 pandemic (FY2020-2021) sent it to a once-in-a-generation peak as Congress stood up emergency UI programs, then it fell back to roughly its structural level. A department-level monitor keeps this mandatory, demand-driven line separate from the discretionary base Congress sets each year. This series is shown in nominal dollars: OMB's Historical Table 5.2 publishes no constant-dollar basis, and we do not synthesize one.