// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did Secretary of State for Employment say? "I'm hired to help.

The secretary of state for employment was a position in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. In 1995, it was merged with the secretary of state for education to make the secretary of state for education and employment. In 2001, the employment functions were hived off and transferred to the secretary of state for social security to form the secretary of state for work and pensions.

List of ministers

Labour (1916–1940)

Name		Term of office		Political party		Prime Minister
	John Hodge MP for Manchester Gorton	10 December 1916	17 August 1917		Labour		David Lloyd George (Coalition)
	George Henry Roberts MP for Norwich	17 August 1917	10 January 1919		Labour
	Robert Horne MP for Glasgow Hillhead	10 January 1919	19 March 1920		Unionist
	Thomas James Macnamara MP for Camberwell North West	19 March 1920	19 October 1922		Liberal
	Anderson Montague-Barlow MP for Salford South	31 October 1922	22 January 1924		Conservative		Bonar Law
							Stanley Baldwin
	Tom Shaw MP for Preston	22 January 1924	3 November 1924		Labour		Ramsay MacDonald
	Arthur Steel-Maitland MP for Birmingham Erdington	6 November 1924	4 June 1929		Conservative		Stanley Baldwin
	Margaret Bondfield MP for Wallsend	7 June 1929	24 August 1931 (lost seat 1931)		Labour		Ramsay MacDonald
	Henry Betterton MP for Rushcliffe	25 August 1931	29 June 1934		Conservative		Ramsay MacDonald (1st & 2nd National Min.)
	Oliver Stanley MP for Westmorland	29 June 1934	7 June 1935		Conservative
	Ernest Brown MP for Leith	7 June 1935	13 May 1940		Liberal National		Stanley Baldwin (3rd National Min.)
							Neville Chamberlain (4th Nat.Min.; War Coalition)

Labour and national service (1940–1959)

Name		Term of office		Political party		Prime Minister
	Ernest Bevin MP for Wandsworth Central	13 May 1940	23 May 1945		Labour		Winston Churchill (War Coalition)
	R. A. Butler MP for Saffron Walden	25 May 1945	26 July 1945		Conservative		Winston Churchill (Caretaker Min.)
	George Isaacs MP for Southwark North until 1950 then Southwark from 1950	3 August 1945	17 January 1951		Labour		Clement Attlee
	Aneurin Bevan MP for Ebbw Vale	17 January 1951	23 April 1951 (resigned)		Labour
	Alfred Robens MP for Blyth Valley	24 April 1951	26 October 1951		Labour
	Walter Monckton MP for Bristol West	28 October 1951	20 December 1955		Conservative		Winston Churchill
							Anthony Eden
	Iain Macleod MP for Enfield West	20 December 1955	14 October 1959		Conservative
							Harold Macmillan
	Edward Heath MP for Bexley	14 October 1959	12 November 1959		Conservative

Labour (1959–1968)

Name		Term of office		Political party		Prime Minister
	Edward Heath MP for Bexley	12 November 1959	7 July 1960		Conservative		Harold Macmillan
	John Hare MP for Sudbury and Woodbridge	27 July 1960	20 October 1963		Conservative
	Joseph Godber MP for Grantham	20 October 1963	16 October 1964		Conservative		Alec Douglas-Home
	Ray Gunter MP for Southwark	18 October 1964	6 April 1968		Labour		Harold Wilson

List of secretaries of state

Employment and productivity (1968–1970)

Name		Term of office		Political party		Prime Minister
	Barbara Castle MP for Blackburn	6 April 1968	19 June 1970		Labour		Harold Wilson

Employment (1970–1995)

Name		Term of office		Political party		Prime Minister
	Robert Carr MP for Mitcham	20 June 1970	7 April 1972		Conservative		Edward Heath
	Maurice Macmillan MP for Farnham	7 April 1972	2 December 1973		Conservative
	William Whitelaw MP for Penrith and The Border	2 December 1973	4 March 1974		Conservative
	Michael Foot MP for Ebbw Vale	5 March 1974	8 April 1976		Labour		Harold Wilson
	Albert Booth MP for Barrow-in-Furness	8 April 1976	4 May 1979		Labour		James Callaghan
	James Prior MP for Lowestoft	5 May 1979	14 September 1981		Conservative		Margaret Thatcher
	Norman Tebbit MP for Chingford	14 September 1981	16 October 1983		Conservative
	Tom King MP for Bridgwater	16 October 1983	2 September 1985		Conservative
	David Young, Baron Young of Graffham Life peer	2 September 1985	13 June 1987		Conservative
	Norman Fowler MP for Sutton Coldfield	13 June 1987	3 January 1990		Conservative
	Michael Howard MP for Folkestone and Hythe	3 January 1990	11 April 1992		Conservative
							John Major
	Gillian Shephard MP for South West Norfolk	11 April 1992	27 May 1993		Conservative
	David Hunt MP for Wirral West	27 May 1993	20 July 1994		Conservative
	Michael Portillo MP for Enfield Southgate	20 July 1994	5 July 1995		Conservative

Education and employment (1995–2001)

Name		Term of office		Political party		Prime Minister
	Gillian Shephard MP for South West Norfolk	5 July 1995	2 May 1997		Conservative		John Major
	David Blunkett MP for Sheffield Brightside	2 May 1997	8 June 2001		Labour		Tony Blair

The office was merged with the Department of Social Security to form the Department for Work and Pensions in 2001.

See also

• Department for Work and Pensions