Rehabilitation of the Unemployed

Report Outline
Problems of Readjustment After the Depression
The Depression and Future Employment Prospects
Federal and State Vocational Education Schools
Projects for Rehabilitation of the Unemployed
Special Focus

Problems of Readjustment After the Depression

As the united states emerges from the depression, employment will be provided in the natural course of events for millions of persons now out of work. At the same time, it is widely predicted that business recovery will not of itself put an end to the problem of unemployment. Technical improvements in methods of production and other industrial changes, hastened by the pressure of hard times for reduction of costs, have destroyed the prospects of many workers for re-employment in their old occupations. In the course of an interview at Warm Springs, February 2, 1933, in which he outlined his plan for development of the Tennessee River watershed, President Roosevelt said:

We now have about 12,000,000 or 13,000,000 wage-earners unemployed, or about 30,000,000 of our population affected directly by unemployment. If we should return immediately to the high level of 1929, I think we still would have about 5,000,000 men out of work on a dole.

Retraining and readjustment thus loom as important factors in repairing the ravages of the depression and restoring some measure of earning power to those who might otherwise be left as its permanent victims. Various plans for relief of unemployment distress, already put into effect or projected, have been based on recognition of this need. In asking Congress, March 21, 1933, for authority to enlist 250,000 unemployed men in a “civilian conservation corps” to work on forestry, flood-control, and similar projects, President Roosevelt stressed the moral and spiritual value of such work.