This week’s stunning surge in unemployment brings the last month's total to more than 22 million Americans who have filed for unemployment. By comparison, during the Great Depression of the 1930s about 20 million Americans became unemployed.
Do we have more unemployed now than we did back then? Not in terms of percentages. Prior to the stock market crash of October-November 1929, the total population of the United States was about 120 million; and taking into account the average family size of 4.11 individuals per household, the total working population was estimated at about 60 million men and women, meaning that in the depths of the Depression, one-third of the country’s workers were unemployed. Today our population is 330 million, and it’s estimated that one-tenth of workers are unemployed so far.
The Depression’s huge unemployment rate did not happen overnight, and initially did not appear as too ominous. The Friday after the first market crash, 100,000 people got pink slips; but then that pace continued, with inexorable steadiness, every Friday for the next four years, until in 1933 the total reached 20 million. Even worse, many of those who became unemployed remained out of work for years, some until preparations for World War II began ramping up in 1938-39. And during most of the Depression years, there was no unemployment insurance in the U.S.
