unemployment

Examples of unemployment in the following topics:

• Continuing Hardships

  • In 1937 the economy went into a recession, causing unemployment to grow and productivity to drop again.
  • Unemployment remained high, but it was slightly lower than the 25% rate seen in 1933.
  • Unemployment jumped from 14.3% in 1937 to 19.0% in 1938.
  • " Indeed, the unemployment rate for 1939 was higher than the unemployment rate for 1931, but lower than in 1932.
  • This chart shows the rise in unemployment in the late 1930's, after years of decline.

• Relief and Conservation Programs

  • Conservation projects included reforestation and flood control, coupling environmental goals with unemployment relief.
  • Unemployment had increased from 4% before the Great Depression to 25% by the time Roosevelt took office.
  • At that time, the federal government provided no safety net: there was no unemployment insurance, no Social Security, and no welfare.
  • Conservation projects included reforestation and flood control, coupling environmental goals with unemployment relief.
  • The Social Security Act was an attempt to create a safety net against economic dangers such as old age, poverty, and unemployment.

• The Recession

  • As the unemployment rate edged upward in 1991, Bush signed a bill providing additional benefits for unemployed workers.
  • By 1992, interest and inflation rates were the lowest in years, but by midyear the unemployment rate reached 7.8%, the highest since 1984.
  • Nevertheless, for the next several years, high unemployment, massive government budgetary deficits, and slow Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth affected the United States until late 1992 and Canada until 1995.

• The G.I. Bill of Rights

  • Benefits included low-cost mortgages, low-interest loans to start a business, cash payments of tuition and living expenses to attend university, high school or vocational education, as well as one year of unemployment compensation.
  • Korean War veterans did not receive unemployment compensation but were entitled to unemployment compensation starting at the end of a waiting period which was determined by the amount and disbursement dates of their mustering out pay.
  • One improvement in the unemployment compensation for Korean War veterans was they could receive both state and federal benefits, the federal benefits beginning once state benefits were exhausted.
  • With the post-war economic boom and very low unemployment rates, relatively few depended on unemployment benefits.

• The Social Problem

  • New social problems emerged from industrialization, threatening to increase unemployment, poverty, and unequal distribution of wealth.
  • In other words, the better the public services, the higher the rent is (as more people value that land).The tendency of speculators to increase the price of land faster than wealth can be produced to pay results in lowering the amount of wealth left over for labor to claim in wages, and finally leads to the collapse of enterprises at the margin, with a ripple effect that becomes a serious business depression entailing widespread unemployment, foreclosures, etc.
  • In Progress and Poverty, George examines various proposed strategies to prevent business depressions, unemployment, and poverty, but finds them unsatisfactory.

• The Second New Deal

  • It established the framework of the American welfare system as a permanent system of universal retirement pensions (Social Security), unemployment insurance and welfare benefits.
  • Roosevelt insisted that it should be funded by payroll taxes rather than from the general fund so "as to give the contributors a legal, moral, and political right to collect their pensions and unemployment benefits. "
  • Roosevelt nationalized unemployment relief through the Works Progress Administration (WPA), headed by Harry Hopkins .

• The Limits of Prosperity

  • Earlier economic downturns had arisen from international conflicts such as the Embargo Act and the War of 1812, and these downturns had resulted in widespread domestic foreclosures, bank failures, unemployment, and a slump in agriculture and manufacturing.
  • The Panic was followed by a five-year depression, resulting in the failure of banks and levels of unemployment which were unprecedented at that time.
  • Whig poster illustrates unemployment in 1837 from the lens of an American family, whose patriarch sits forlornly at a table while rent collectors enter the door.

• The Great Depression

  • The Great Depression was a decade-long period of poverty and unemployment that followed the 1929 stock market crash.
  • The market crash marked the beginning of a decade of high unemployment, poverty, low profits, deflation, plunging farm incomes, and lost opportunities for economic growth and personal advancement.
  • Around 1928, demand for new housing had faltered, subsequently leading to declining sales of building materials and unemployment among construction workers.
  • By 1932, unemployment had surged to 24 percent, while stock prices plummeted by more than 80 percent.
  • In 1933, unemployment rose to 25 percent, with more than 11 million people seeking work.

• Social Security and Tax Reform

  • It established a permanent system of universal retirement pensions (Social Security), unemployment insurance, and welfare benefits for the handicapped and needy.
  • Roosevelt insisted that it should be funded by payroll taxes rather than from the general fund "so as to give the contributors a legal, moral, and political right to collect their pensions and unemployment benefits.

• Economic Booms and Busts

  • The panic resulted in a wave of bankruptcies and bank failures; land prices dropped and wide-scale urban unemployment began .
  • The Panic was followed by a five-year depression, with the failure of banks and then-record-high unemployment levels.