Unemployment Reaches Roughly One Quarter of the Workforce
At the depth of the Depression in 1933, nearly 13 million Americans are out of work
Quick facts
- Peak unemployment
- 24.9 percent, 1933
- Number unemployed
- About 12,830,000
- Shantytowns
- "Hoovervilles"
- Safety net
- No federal unemployment insurance until 1935
What happened
Unemployment climbed through the early 1930s as factories closed and farms failed. At the height of the Depression in 1933, 24.9 percent of the total workforce, about 12,830,000 people, was out of work. Farmers, who were not counted among the unemployed, lost land and homes to foreclosure as commodity prices collapsed. Shantytowns of packing crates and scrap, called Hoovervilles after the president, sprang up across the country, and displaced families split apart or migrated in search of work. Over one quarter of the American workforce had no job.
Why it matters
The unemployment figure is the single number that captures how far the economy fell. Roughly one worker in four could not find a job, and there was no federal unemployment insurance to soften the blow until the Social Security Act of 1935. The human scale of that joblessness drove the political demand for federal action that carried Franklin Roosevelt into office and gave the New Deal its mandate.
How we know
The 24.9 percent figure and the count of 12,830,000 unemployed come from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library's summary of Depression statistics, and the one-quarter figure is independently stated in the Library of Congress overview of the period.
Sources
- Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. Great Depression Facts · Reputable sourcefdrlibrary.org · The domain "fdrlibrary.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Library of Congress. The Great Depression and World War II, 1929 to 1945: Overview · Primary sourceloc.gov · The domain "loc.gov" is on our Primary source registry.
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Part of a timelineThe Great Depression20 events · The longest and deepest downturn in the history of the modern industrial economy, from a stock market that lost 89 percent of its value to breadlines that ran for a decadeView all →