Unemployment

Overview

The emergence of the Great Depression in the United States caused a downward spiral in the U.S. economy. Not only did the Depression have a profound negative affect on the stock market it also caused high unemployment. Through high unemployment people began to save their money rather then spend frivolously, which caused aggregate demand to decrease essentially resulting in companies being forced to slow production of certain goods. Unemployment was still a large problem till Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected as President of the United States. Through his policy of the New Deal Roosevelt was able to create government jobs for the American people. Although this did not solve the problem of high unemployment it certainly helped to relieve some of the affects unemployment had on the economy. Yes, the New Deal was incredibly effective in getting the economy running again it still did not solve all the problems that caused the Great Depression.

World War II although horrible was a blessing in disguise for the United States economy. It led to a decrease in unemployment because there was a demand for military products especially oversees. This resulted in more jobs being created to fill the factories that would begin the production of this military equipment. Then with the war hitting the United States on the home front it caused many Americans to either enlist or be drafted in the army. Even though many Americans specifically men were fighting oversees there were still a demand for people to fill the jobs that these men had left to go fight in Europe.

This is the point when women begin to fill these positions. Due to the large amount of men off to war the people left to feel those vacancies were women. This is one of the main reasons why production continued to increase throughout and after the war. Without women filling these positions it would have been incredibly difficult for the U.S. economy to continue increasing its production. This also is arguably the turning point in U.S. history for women becoming increasingly more active participants in the labor force.

"Employment During WWII"

The wartime economic boom benefited from the increase in employment, with help from the gender and racial employment barriers that were broken. Calculating the labor force during WWII we look at the all employed and unemployed civilians, population who are not a part of the armed forces. In the table below there are calculations for the employment rate of all non-institutional civilians 14 years old and up

Non-Institutional Civilians (Age 14 and Over) 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945

All Non-institutional Civilians 99,840 99,900 98,640 94,640 93,220 94,090 Labor Force 55.70% 56% 57.20% 58.70% 58.60% 57.20% Employed (%of Labor Force) 85.40% 90.10% 95.30% 98.10% 98.80% 98.10% Unemployed (%of Labor Force) 14.60% 9.90% 4.70% 1.90% 1.20% 1.90%

Economy of the US during WWII