The Extent of Unemployment

Report Outline
Extent of Currnt Unemployment
Extent of Current Unemployment
Trends of Employment in Industry
Farm Labor Supply and Demand
Employment in Industrial States and Cities
Special Focus

Extent of Currnt Unemployment

Preliminary Censsus Figures on Unemployment

Interest in the unemployment situation in the United States—a matter of public concern and controversy since the President's Conference on Unemployment of 1921—heightens as the Bureau of the Census announces its preliminary figures from the returns of the 1930 count, as the index numbers of employment sink to lower levels for the months since the census was taken, as the American Federation of Labor prepares for its annual convention in Boston next month, and as the 1930 congressional elections approach.

While unemployment is now generally recognized as primarily a problem of industrial organization and while there is growing understanding of its main causes, adequate data as to its extent have up to now been lacking. The absence of complete and reliable statistics upon the total volume of unemployment, its industrial and geographical distribution, and its duration has given rise to conflicting estimates and public debate concerning its extent and distribution. This debate, as well as a desire to analyze and appraise the many investigations of unemployment that have been made during recent years and the experience of foreign countries with systems for prevention and relief, led the United States Senate in May, 1928, to direct its Committee on Education and Labor to investigate the causes of unemployment and proposed methods for its control. Upon the recommendation of this committee, which Congress adopted, the Bureau of the Census undertook this year for the first time to collect scientifically acceptable statistics of unemployment in the United States.

The 1930 Census of Unemployment

Preliminary returns from the unemployment census of 1930 have been compiled and published to date for the entire country, for states by counties, and for cities of 100,000 or more. These census figures, so far as they go, shed the first trustworthy light upon the total number of persons out of work. The census data thus far announced do not purport to give a complete picture of the unemployment situation in the United States, and by the time the results are fully tabulated the condition of the labor market may be radically different from that during April when the census was taken. Nevertheless, the 1930 census affords a fair measure of the number of unemployed persons able and willing to work on the census date and a basis from which to estimate the subsequent trend of unemployment. If, therefore, the census is supplemented by figures currently collected concerning the condition of the labor market, results may be obtained which should approximate much more closely to the real unemployment situation than any estimates hitherto made.