Great Depression: 'Hoovervilles,' Shantytowns For The Poor & Homeless, 1930s

[appalachiablue]

A brief history of the burgeoning communities known as "Hoovervilles," named for President Hoover's- R inaction to the crisis during the Great Depression. Shantytowns grew up throughout the US, from coast to coast, including New York City's Central Park. Unemployment hit 24.9% and in some areas the rate reached 35-40%.
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- '3 Reasons Why Unemployment Is Already At Great Depression Levels,' Forbes, May 19, 2020.

April’s employment report set records for all the wrong reasons. The unemployment rate increased from 4.4% to 14.7%, the largest one month increase in history and the highest rate in the history of official government data (started in 1948). It is estimated that unemployment hit 24.9% during the Great Depression.

Employment dropped by 20.5 million, more than 10 times the previous largest monthly decrease of 1.96 million experienced in September 1945 after World War II ended. At that point in time this was about 3.3% of the workforce.

The Department of Labor misclassified 8 million people: In question 13 of the Frequently Asked Questions portion of the Department of Labor’s release it included, “Of the 11.5 million employed people not at work during the survey reference week in April 2020, 8.1 million people were included in the “other reasons” category, much higher than the average of 620,000 for April 2016–2019 (not seasonally adjusted). BLS analysis of the underlying data suggests that this group included workers affected by the pandemic response who should have been classified as unemployed on temporary layoff.”...

More, https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2020/05/19/3-reasons-unemployment-is-already-at-great-depression-levels

[no_hypocrisy]

1. True Story:

I was a substitute aid to a fourth grade teacher in one of NJ's richest school districts. Without any irony, she taught the class that Hoovervilles were named in honor of Herbert Hoover. My mouth dropped open.

[appalachiablue]

2. That's seriously twisted and reckless, bold wasn't she, wow.