Unemployment in the United States has fluctuated due to economic conditions through the decades.

Essay by aquakrzeHigh School, 12th gradeA+, December 2002

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Unemployment has been a cycle throughout history, and in the United States, there have been many cycles with both positive and negative affects on the economy as well as the society. Many events or conditions can be associated with unemployment, there being a relationship between the two. When the history of the United States in reviewed, there have been extreme conditions that stand out over the years.

Unemployment is used to describe the condition of being out of work. This word can only be used in your case if you are able and willing to work, but is laid off or cannot find a job because no one is hiring. The statistics and figures of unemployment are found in the CPS, the Current Population Survey. In the beginning of each month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the US Department of Labor releases the appropriate figures of how many people are employed vs.

unemployed.

There were depressions in 1893, 1914, and 1921; but the Great Depression of 1929 affected unemployment by targeting the stock market and affecting the whole nation. The earlier depressions were considered regional and did not affect unemployment figures as a total. In the 1930's, there were no reliable statistics available to show how many people were out of work, but it is thought to be close to at least 30% of the labor force was unemployed, which accounted for about 15 million people. "Massive joblessness had a profound social and emotional impact upon the American people," (Bernstein 18). The population moved in many ways, a response to economical opportunity or lack there of. Immigration came to a halt, and the shift of lives from farm to city slowed significantly. The Emergency Relief and Construction Act of 1932, was the first New Deal program set under...