At the height of the Great Depression, if you were unemployed, you were among the roughly quarter of America's working population in the same boat, according to statistics provided by the nonprofit Roosevelt Institute's New Deal Network. Though the depression set off by the great stock market crash of sent shock waves through all sectors, some industries felt its impact more than others. According to U. S Census figures from , the total population hovered near million people.
It's estimated that of the workers who were not farmers, nearly 40 percent were without jobs during this period, according to Gene Smiley of the Liberty Fund's The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. If you were a business person, regardless of sector, who had invested in the market during the s, you were immediately impacted by the stock market crash of , according to the Library of Congress, which referenced a restauranter and inexperienced investor who lost it all with the crash.
Even those who didn't have money in stocks at the time were impacted -- as bank runs occurred when average consumers panicked that the banks would run out of money. Both the Pacific and Mountain regions also reported over one-tenth of their workers unemployed. See Table 6. At the other end of the spectrum, the South Atlantic region had the lowest unemployment rate in the nation. On a state-by-state basis, South Carolina 4.
The number of workers laid off from manufacturing industries was large, the particular industries varying by region. In the Middle Atlantic region, job losses were high at clothing, textile, and steel manufacturers. Layoffs were prevalent in the steel and auto industries of the East North Central region.
Farming, a major source of jobs at the time, accounted for much of the unemployment in other regions. In summary, about one in every four workers in the nation was unemployed in the worst year of the Great Depression. Many workers were unemployed for much longer than one year.
Of those fortunate to have jobs, many experienced cutbacks in hours, and hence, earnings. Men—particularly those older and black—were among the most adversely affected during a time when age- and race-based employment discrimination were not unlawful and when occupational shifts in labor demand were operating against them. Lower skilled workers were at a greater disadvantage in the labor market than higher skilled workers.
Those who toiled on farms and in factories were displaced in especially large numbers. And, states whose economies were dependent upon agriculture and manufacturing reported comparatively high unemployment rates.
It utilizes, when possible, seasonally adjusted monthly data for December the recession's start and the latest month in for which data are available. In those cases in which the U. Bureau of Labor Statistics BLS does not adjust monthly data for seasonal fluctuations, which prevents month-to-month comparisons, annual average data for are used.
For the Depression period, data from tables earlier in the report are supplemented with data from the decennial census when it provides statistical series more akin to those available today. From a labor market perspective, the eleventh recession in the post-World War II period is reminiscent in several respects of the Great Depression.
The similarities are not unique to the two economic downturns, however. They are shared with many of the recessions that occurred in the intervening years. Analogously, the Great Depression differs from the latest and intervening recessions by having had a much worse effect on workers based on labor force measures e.
There are a number of similarities between the characteristics of the unemployed during the Great Depression and the recession that began in December Three similarities are intertwined:.
Workers in the mining, construction, and manufacturing industries are overrepresented among those who lose jobs during economic downturns. Nonetheless, Workers in blue-collar occupations historically have accounted for a majority of employment in the cyclically sensitive goods-producing sector.
In , The greater concentration of men in cyclically sensitive industries and occupations contributes to the more adverse impact of recessions on male members of the labor force. One means of measuring this differential effect is to examine the trend in employment by gender. During the Great Depression, the number of employed women increased while the number of employed men decreased.
Despite their somewhat increased presence over time in these industries and occupations, women experienced substantially less job loss than men during the current recession.
The number of employed women fell 2. The comparatively worse impact of recessions on male employment is not limited to the Great Depression and the recession that began in December According to an analysis conducted in of data from the Current Employment Statistics program, which began to collect data by gender in , most of those who lost jobs in the five recessions that occurred between December and March were men. The researchers found that although women lost jobs in the last two of the five recessions covered by their analysis, men lost 9 to 19 times more jobs than women in the July March and July November recessions, respectively.
They concluded that. The industry divisions that fare best during recessions, services and government, have a high concentration of women, partially accounting for women's relative job stability. The more negative effect of the Great Depression and recent recessions on male members of the labor force also is discernible from unemployment statistics.
As was the case during the Depression, 49 unemployed men as a proportion of the male labor force exceeded unemployed women as a proportion of the female labor during the last three recessions. At the end of the recession in November, the unemployment rate among men measured Similarly, in May , 17 months into the latest recession, men's unemployment rate was Research also suggests that varying trends in the growth rates of male- and female-dominated industries contributed to the relatively worse unemployment experience of men starting with the recession.
The incidence of unemployment tends to vary inversely with the skill level of a worker regardless of the stage of the business cycle. The unemployment rate of workers in management, professional, and related occupations 2.
Looking at the data in terms of changes in employment reveals the same pattern: higher-skilled workers weather economic downturns better than lower-skilled workers on average. Between and , employment among professionals and nonfarm proprietors, managers, and officials increased. Employment of workers in construction and extraction occupations and in production occupations decreased as well between and , falling by , and ,, respectively.
The high proportion of workers under 25 years old who were unemployed at the time of the [] census were due to a comparatively rapid turnover in employment, with frequent but relatively short periods of idleness.
Among workers 55 to 64 years old, on the other hand, unemployment apparently occurred less frequently, but those who lost their jobs experienced relatively great difficulty in finding another job, and tended to remain unemployed for comparatively long periods. In , the median duration of unemployment was about seven months for job seekers up to age The length of unemployment spells increased for each age group thereafter.
The pattern of older workers having more difficulty finding new jobs has recurred. In , the median duration of unemployment for all workers was 9. While As was the case during the Depression, some speculate that age discrimination plays a role in the reemployment problems of today's older workers. For example, the publisher of a job listing website Workforce Just as involuntary part-time employment increased during the s, so too has it grown today. The number of persons working part-time for economic reasons, that is, who would prefer full-time jobs if they were available, almost doubled in nonfarm industries between December and May , from 4,, to 8,, There are substantial differences in the extent of unemployment during the Great Depression and the current recession.
The unemployment rate rose almost eight-fold between 3. In contrast, it almost doubled between December 4. At the peak of unemployment during the Great Depression , one in four workers was unemployed, in contrast with fewer than one in eleven today. To approximate the pervasiveness of unemployment at the depth of the Depression, the number of workers without jobs would have to have totaled Employers cut the total number of jobs on their payrolls much more deeply during the Great Depression than they have thus far in the latest recession.
Between and , employment on nonfarm payrolls fell by To approximate the relative extent of cutbacks that took place over the four-year period between and , employers would have had to have shed In the goods - producing sector, 7. Within the goods-producing sector, construction companies would have had to have pared payrolls by 2. Manufacturers would have had to have let go 2.
A comparison between these labor force measures two years into the Depression and thus far in the ongoing recession similarly shows the latter to be less severe than the former. By , the unemployment rate had risen to Similarly, the 4. In the goods - producing sector, 5. Within the goods-producing sector, construction companies would have had to have pared payrolls by 1. Manufacturers would have had to have shed almost 1. At least part of the different effect by geographic area of the Great Depression and current recession flows from the industry composition of states.
As shown in Table 7 , many of the states in the East North Central region had among the highest unemployment rates in May the latest month for which state data are available. The difficulties of the area, whose employment base remains heavily dependent upon goods production, 69 reflect the current recession's intensification of the long-term problems of U. Another reason for the different geographic effect of the Great Depression and the current recession is the varying impact of the two downturns in nonmanufacturing industries.
Many states that were dependent on the agricultural industry suffered greatly during the s. The unemployment rates of states from which farmers migrated e. The implications of being unemployed have changed substantially over time.
One reason for the altered situation facing jobless persons is the increased prevalence of families in which both spouses work. In , three-fifths of married-couple families reported the husband as sole breadwinner. Both spouses were employed in another Even for those persons who were employed during the Great Depression, the dismal economy created a greater hardship than is the case today because of the much deeper drop in earnings and hours worked. Average hourly earnings of factory workers in manufacturing industries fell by In addition, average weekly hours for these workers decreased by Another important difference between the Great Depression and the current recession, in terms of the economic hardship inflicted by high unemployment, is the nationwide availability of public assistance programs in place today.
Before the s, public assistance was provided by private charities and local governments. Following passage of the Emergency Relief and Construction Act of by Congress, 33 more states became involved in providing public assistance. The act was the only major federal measure passed during the Hoover Administration explicitly to aid the jobless. It came almost four years after the Depression began. The Emergency Relief and Construction Act was signed reluctantly by President Hoover, who believed that the traditional sources of relief were the most appropriate agencies to handle the needs of the unemployed.
The act was envisioned as a temporary measure, not to imply long-term commitment of federal resources in this area. The federal money was offered to the states in the form of loans that were to be repaid with interest or through deductions from future federal aid to states for highways.
This repayment feature was cancelled by Congress in during the Roosevelt Administration. Not until enactment of the Federal Emergency Relief Act of FERA during the Roosevelt Administration did the federal government truly commit its own resources for provision of assistance to the unemployed. FERA, through matching grants and discretionary funds under Title I, aided employable persons and their dependents with cash and in-kind benefits between and Even under this program, however, direct public relief was considered a temporary measure "the dole" , while work relief job creation programs were emphasized.
With passage of the Social Security Act in —two years after the end of the Depression period's first downturn—the federal government established a permanent presence in the area of benefit transfer programs e. Thus, persons unemployed during the current recession did not have to wait until controversy ended over whether aid should be administered by private or public agencies, until state governments and the federal government awoke to the magnitude of the jobless problem and intervened, or until an administrative system was established at the state and federal levels before they received benefits.
In addition to already having safety net programs in place to cushion the impact of unemployment, today's jobless also benefit more from the social legislation than did the Depression's unemployed.
A nationwide federal-state unemployment compensation program was part of the original Social Security Act, but when it was enacted, many groups were excluded from coverage. Among the excluded were workers in government and educational organizations as well as those laid off from small firms. As a result, the unemployment compensation program covered less than half of all employees in Workers eligible for unemployment compensation UC during the current recession also collect benefits for a longer period of time than persons unemployed during the Depression.
In December , for example, 12 states provided benefits for a maximum of weeks; 33 states, weeks; and 4 states, weeks. There is a permanently authorized extended benefit program in effect today as well that provides an additional 13 or 26 weeks of UC benefits in high-unemployment states. In addition, the th Congress authorized as part of P. The th Congress extended the temporary program and expanded upon it in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of P. Yet another liberalization of the law since the s that helps today's unemployed workers involves the waiting period before benefits can be collected.
In the early years of the system, states had waiting periods ranging from two to four weeks. It allows employers who temporarily cutback the hours of their employees rather than laying them off to develop short-time compensation plans. If the plans are approved by the state in which the firms are located, employees involuntarily working reduced schedules can receive partial UC benefits.
Finally, the UC system was of no value to jobless workers during the Depression period's first economic downturn as the Social Security Act was not passed until In addition, no benefits were paid out for the first two years in order for reserve funds to accumulate.
Other federal programs available to assist those persons unemployed today also were in their infancy during the s. In September , it became national policy to provide aid to farmers and the unemployed by purchasing the farmers' surplus produce and distributing it to the unemployed and their families. Restaurants, bars, travel, and retails are the hardest-hit sectors.
Though 40 states are now in the process of reopening parts of the economy, economists warn recovery is not expected for many months, or even years. Despite the job news, Americans overwhelmingly say they fear it's too soon to reopen the economy. The poll also gauged American interest in a vaccine. Despite the polls, which show most Americans still favor physical distancing, a new analysis from USA Today that uses cell phone data shows that in recent weeks more Americans have been on the move, after sheltering in place for the second half of March and the first part of April.
Overall, however, US mobility is half of what it was in mid-February. Kaiser Health News reports that businesses are considering the role of testing. Hotel chains, tech and Internet giants, and manufacturers are among some of the industries considering widespread testing of employees as they return to in-person positions.
Though cases in Detroit and New Orleans, early hot spots, have dropped in recent weeks, Chicago now reports roughly the same number of cases as New York City each day, with Los Angeles a close third. According to the New York Times , about 29, new cases and about 1, new deaths were reported on Thursday, a trend seen in recent weeks as the nation has hovered around 25, cases per day and roughly 2, deaths.
One day following the announcement that a personal valet for President Trump had tested positive for COVID, Vice President Mike Pence's office announced today one of his top aides also has the virus. Yesterday President Trump said he and Pence, along with a small number of White House staffers, would be tested regularly for the virus. They use a rapid test that provides results within minutes.
0コメント