Looking for Work: A History of Unemployment
With the unemployment rate at a 25-year high, BackStory is exploring the phenomenon of joblessness throughout American history. How has the changing nature of employment shaped the experience of not having a job? Have the moral connotations of work evolved? What has it meant for American workers that there are always new immigrants – or poor migrants – who are willing to work for less?
Over the course of the hour, the History Guys speak with historian Alex Keyssar, take calls from BackStory listeners, and hear an imagined testimonial from an itinerant worker in the “New Northwest” at the turn of the 20th century.
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Listing of the music heard in “Looking for Work”
Audio Slide Show Web Extra
Looking for Work in the New Northwest Imagine it’s Seattle, 1910, and you’re a new arrival from back East. You find your way down to Skid Row, where you hear you might be able to get work for the day on a lumber crew. No such luck–but what you do find is a grizzled old man who buys you a drink and launches into the story of how he wound up out of work in the New Northwest.
Cited Resources
- Alex Keyssar’s book, Out of Work: The First Century of Unemployment in Massachusetts, and a review
- Entire audio from oral history “Goin’ North: Tales of the Great Migration”
- Transcript of FDR’s fireside chat “On the Unemployment Census”
Further Reading
- The origins of the government definition of “unemployment”
- Racial disparities in unemployment, state by state
- Why joblessness now is bleaker than it’s been in past downturns
- The invisibility of the “underemployed” in America
- Stories and resources about the history of African-American migration for work
Primary Documents
18th Century
Letter from a German laborer in Pennsylvania about the “miserable and wretched” conditions for migrants to the U.S. (1750)
Letter from a Scottish indentured servant in Virginia (1774)
19th Century
Newspaper ad for the “Tramp’s Terror” (1877)
Testimony by a Massachusetts mill worker about making ends meet when work dries up (1883)
20th Century
Letters from African-Americans looking for work in the North. (1917)
Tape of President Nixon and an aide discussing how to handle the rising unemployment rate
SPECIAL TREAT!!!
Watch a rare, live performance of “Looking for Work” at UVa’s Miller Center of Public Affairs.
Hi,
Looks like it will be a great show. Hope all involved have a blast doing it and that if you want it that you all get the fame, wealth, and groupies and all kinds of other good stuff.
I’ve bumped into a lot of anecdotal data that during the great depression, the unemployment rate was more like fifty per cent. If this is true, this would change the story a great deal. Is there reliable evidence that the numbers were manipulated to make it seem not quite as bad as it really was? If there is, why isn’t this story given more attention?
The Bonus March brings up a topic that you may want to explore in a future show about how many people with laudible records have a really dark chapter in their history. Ike carried out MacArthur’s orders to dispurse the marchers. Omar Bradley had soldiers work on sand contaminated by atomic bombs. Colin Powell abetted the cover up re the My Lai massacre. I would love to hear a story on this theme.
I think this story is related to the one I just noted, but others may think it deserves greater attention by itself: the attitude toward killing civilians during war. In W II the firebombings of Tokyo, Dresden, and other cities were celebrated in the mainstream press. Perrry Como recorded an upbeat song about it. Now, of course, we are much more sensitive to this.
And I continue to be fascinated by the Sally Hemmings story and how so few historians were willing to look at the facts, and so were slow to recognize the truth. I think there’s a similar story re Lincoln’s sexuality and no doubt many other historical events.
Ben
QuoteThose of us with jobs are too often taught to see the unemployed as rivals — especially by our employers. But during the Great Depresssion, some of the most pathbreaking unions actually formed strong alliances with the unemployed — including their own laid off members. This is something we’ve gotta relearn. The 2 examples I’ve heard most about are the Minneapolis Teamsters in the 1930′s, and the 1934 Auto-Lite strike in Toledo. But there must have been others. And what role did they play in eventually getting state-sponsored unemployment compensation — which most of us now take for granted?
QuoteCan’t wait. Is there a correlation between Americans leaving religion (or as religion now loosely interprets what is takes to get to heaven), giving less to others in the service of community or how we lost our industrial purpose because we believed ourselves to be of more importance to others? Simply put, did we begin to assume that because we are “American” we shouldn’t have to perform certain jobs, that we all deserve to be served in some form? or is this a result of America’s fascination with Celebreality?
QuoteMy husband and I often discuss the very American attitude that people from other countries should be subservient to Americans, even in their countries, but especially when they are in America. We have often observed this behavior during our travels.
When I was in Stockholm, Sweden, with my wife and mother-in-law, we were in an Indian restaurant when an inebriated man got wind that we were Americans and began to yell (or rather wail) about George W. Bush and America, and how sick we are as a nation, etc., etc. The host at the restaurant quieted the man and eventually hurried him out of the restaurant. But for our part, we just smiled with sympathy and wondered at how much anger America evoked in that man. Obviously we represent America, and we try to do so respectably, with dignity and generosity, but we aren’t the only ones creating the reputation of the country; indeed, we are the quiet, well-mannered part of that group.
So I guess the question really is how do we sway the preponderance of America towards an attitude of increased modesty. My guess is that people have grown over-accustomed to being served in America, and that will change probably relatively soon.
QuoteYes, I think many have been humbled by the economy, however, not in a sense of 9/11, everyone work together to build a better country way. Instead of building a smarter, more agilent America, we have a bitter, “me-first” jealous America. As we continue to divide and implode, the lesson will eventually sink in-let’s hope it’s not too late to heal our divisions.
QuoteAl, your vision of a “‘me-first’ jealous America” is something that I worry about as well.
Since this is a history-oriented media resource, I hope that we can look at the history of the so-called “me generation”. This generation, named for their self-exploration, self-glorification and championship of individual rights consisted of the children of the so-called “greatest generation,” known for their willingness to sacrifice themselves for a larger cause, and their often closed-minded pursuit of an overarching goal (McCarthyism comes to mind).
Consider this dynamic. The children of the “greatest” generation must have felt that any follow up generation must be a let down. They could never surpass their parents and so worked on feeling okay about themselves. Their children, generations X and Y (my generation), could well be described as the “them generation” then, since they have been witness to their parents’ very public search for self-fulfillment and the mythification of their grandparents.
Jealousy and bitter irony are great risks for this generation. But it is also a generation served by the perspectives of the previous two, with a generally strong grasp on both the need for guiding purpose and self-worth. It is my hope that this group of generations can build American wisdom, so that the nation can continue to help the world face its many challenges.
QuoteThis is a comment on your program of Tues, 6/2/09: Thomas Jefferson on The Press. Happens I have just finished reading “The Man From Montecello”, and was impressed by tales of his many and varied dealings with scurrilous attacks through newspapers.. Objectivity certainly got lost in there a lot, but J dealt with it by NOT addressing it overtly: (The only cure for lies is the Truth.) And how diplomatically he did lead folks around to seeing some of that truth. It would appear that this man of incredible depth, industry, and aptitudes could proceed toward a decision, assured that his motives were guided by scrupulous ethics, and dedicated to the common good. My own husband often quoted Scripture, that an honorable man is always at a disadvantage when dealing with scoundrels. YOUR PROGRAM WAS RIVETING. Make us want to visit UVA and Montecello again. Many thanks. FRob.
QuoteI think part of the story could be the establishment of unemployment insurance in the US as part of the original Social Security Act. Also, the struggle for it in the 1930′s (led by Communists and other radicals) and the limitations on it (nearly half of all workers were originally excluded from benefits).
Another aspect is the fact that the UI system today does not respond well to the precarious and PT nature of a lot of the work people are forced to take on today. You might also want to take a look at a particular weird glitch in the system today that deprives most of the over 600,000 non-tenure track (hired by the course, term or year) college teachers of unemployment insurance. For more info on the latter, see the booklet Access to Unemployment Insurance for Contingent Faculty at I would be happy to supply more details on any of the above. I am a labor historian and contingent faculty activist.
QuoteThis topic brings to mind the nineteenth-century distinction between the “deserving” and the “undeserving” poor. I wonder if there has been a tendency to view unemployed individuals more favorably whenever there is a widespread economic downturn? In normal economic conditions there seems to be a moral stigma attached to being unemployed. Does unemployment look differently today – with huge economic sectors struggling – than it has in the past?
You guys are always a treat to listen to – I’m looking forward to it.
Beth
QuotePeople I speak to express anger towards illegal aliens because they are “taking our jobs” ; illegals can be made to work for less than minimum wage. However, you couldn’t pay these same complaining people enough money to mop, pluck chickens, clean, gather cabbages, pick fruit, or many other mind numbing, back breaking jobs available to legal or illegal aliens.
The same hue and cry went up during the great depression in the early 30s. In fact, thousands of illegal mexican aliens were rounded up and shipped back to Mexico, along with many mexican-american citizens caught up in the drag net. Even though some advocate doing this again, it would not address the root economic problems. In fact, fruit growers and other industries that depend on guest worker programs would go broke, further worsening the economy
Regarding the issue of cheap non-citizen labor, a more substantive problem, vis a vis the loss of jobs, is US corporate use of off-shore production and services. Here they take advantage of a significantly larger and less expensive foreign labor source, far from interfering labor unions ever pushing up labor costs. It would appear that US labor costs have priced themselves out of the market. We need to structure tax incentives to return jobs to the US that provide goods and services; our current major reliance on “the service industry” is not working. And not merely to produce goods, but quality goods that people want to buy. I offer GM as exhibit A for a company that ignored the marketplace and continued to produce inventory that would not sell in a world of increasing gas costs. Perhaps the increasing gas costs will drive more local and regional production of goods and services so that this will occur regardless of any conscious overall strategy by the powers that be.
QuoteWould you elaborate on the sources you mentioned about the Great Migration, please? The texts I have read about it emphasize the economics factors–that the promise of industrial jobs lured agricultural workers north. One of the letters you cite begins, “I have been reading the Chicago defender and seeing so many advertisements about the work in the north I thought to write you concerning my condition. I am working hard in the south and can hardly earn a living. I have a wife and one child and can hardly feed them.”
I’m really curious as to how the migrants would break down into occupations. I certainly know that a lot of Southern towns had growing black commercial districts, and blacks worked in trades, but how did their numbers compare to those blacks who moved straight from the farm to the north? I’m fairly sure that most African Americans moving off the farm had not been making the kind of wages suggested on the program; more likely they were trapped in a cycle of penury through tenant farming or sharecropping. I’d really appreciate the citations you mentioned. Thanks!
QuoteToday’s program is extraordinarily stupid. The broadcasters comment on the “innovation” of the railroad and how it nationalized employment. They forget that they had earlier commented on the migration of the Irish from high unemployment Ireland to low unemployment US. People have always moved form high unemployment to low unemployment areas.
They state that women are paid much less than men. They should look at studies that adjust for experience, education, etc. The results show that hourly rates of pay for individuals of comparable skill are equal.
They also have a fictional account of a migrant to the Northwest. Why not look for real accounts? Shoddy historical work.
QuoteI was driving early am and listening to the program on wamu in wash.dc 88.5 and was amazed to listen to history of working people.I came from india with a MD degree in medicine.My struggle was veryyyyy short one compared to what I see around and heard in your program.Many people don’t know how lucky they are when they complain about their jobs.
QuoteDr Saini
Enjoyed the show today. It took me back to June 1953, just 2 months after my 18th birthday, when I left my single mother (a hairdresser) and my little brother standing on the Greyhound bus platform as I left my home in the South for Cleveland Ohio where my friend promised me that we would get a great job at one of those big factories along Euclid Ave. That didn’t happen and what I got instead was hunger and despondency because the refrain at every hiring office I heard over and over again was, “We don’t hire hillbillies!” So I hitch-hiked home and what happened for the next 56 years is told in my book-length manuscript, “Twentieth Century Scalawag: A White Southernor’s Journey through Segregation to Civiil Rights Activism,” written with enormous help from historian Nancy MacLean, Northwestern University. And we can’t seem to find a publisher – any suggestions? Edward H Peeples, Richmond Virginia
QuoteI’m a listener in Atlanta, where our local NPR affiliate, WABE, just started broadcasting your show. This was the first episode of this show I’ve ever heard and I really enjoyed it. I think the blend of different types of sources and ways of storytelling works — history professors, oral history, historical fiction reading, call-ins, etc.
Re the content of the show, a few family stories popped up in my head during the program, one of which is the story of my grandfather. He emigrated from Germany a few years after WWI, jumping ship and settling in New York with his brother. Without a scrap of English, they spent the 1920s, they had to get creative about employment. My mother tells me one of their most successful ventures was running a bootlegging operation out of the basement of a Bronx candy factory. But often times were hard and my grandfather would get by on a single cup of coffee with lots and lots of cream and sugar. After getting married in the late 1920s, he began looking for steadier employment, but no one would hire Germans… except other Germans. Luckily he met a German who owned several apartment buildings in the Bronx and was happy to have my grandfather work as a superintendent, carrying out repairs, renovations and maintenance work. Got a rent-free apartment out of. This employment within the immigrant community allowed at least some German workers who faced discrimination, esp. during WWII, to continue working when otherwise they would probably have been told something along the lines of “Krauts Need Not Apply.” It also allowed illegal immigrants, like my grandfather, to remain in this country instead of being sent back to Germany. As it was, he was able to continue at his job, keeping up apartments, for decades afterward. He and my grandmother learned English from radio, movies and tenants. My mother was able to get a full education, including tuition-free college at CCNY. Yes, and my mom went on to live the American dream. I wonder of at the parallels between his story and the story of immigrants today.
I know this comment wasn’t strictly employment related, but it was something that popped into my head and I wanted to share it with someone. Again, thanks for you program.
QuoteSomething doesn’t add up!
Reading the CIA Online World Fact Book I came across some surprising statistics, the top three exporting countries in the world are #3-USA #2-China and #1 with only a population of 82 million is Germany!
My first thought was something doesn’t add up about the story of US manufacturing job losses in the last few years.
We were told manufacturing jobs, were transferred to other countries, due to the following reasons,
-high wages-
-union actions
-environmental regulations
-OSHA regulations
-short working hours
-too much holiday time off
-medical care costs
-unemployment insurance costs
-etc.
Well something doesn’t add up!
In Germany workers,
-earn close to US wages
-by law a union representative sits on the board of directors of all public companies
-environmental regulations are much tougher in Germany
-workplace safety regulations are tougher
-they work fewer hours per week
-every worker has a minimum four weeks of vacation plus holidays for a total of 39 days per year, the US has a minimum of one week vacation plus holidays for a total of 13 days per year
-Germany has universal free medical care which is considered one of the best in the world
-unemployment insurance last much much longer than in the US
-etc. etc. etc.
There are however at least two areas in which the US leads Germany,
-as a larger country it has vastly more natural resources.
-AND! US workers are the most productive workers in the world and have been so for many years!
Something doesn’t add up!
If Germany, with more of the “problems” purportedly hobbling US manufacturing can provide it’s workers and citizens with one of the highest standards of living and the US with more natural resources plus a more productive work force cannot,
SOMETHING DOESN’T ADD UP!
I am inclined to look not for something Germany has, but rather a flaw in the US model.
Extemporaneously, I would suspect Germany’s long tradition of working your way to the top by starting at the bottom, endows one with a broad, full and rich experience of the industry which you end up running. This multi year acquired in depth knowledge is what gives German companies their competitive edge.
Compare this to the US, where business school graduates lack this essential insight into the companies they are hired to lead.
The entire focus is not on improving product, but instead the focus is on quarterly profits driving stock prices, and the accompanying stock options, which are the chief focus of executives.
This is focusing on short term returns and combined with a lack of improving the product leads down the path of, first boost stock prices, then sell the business or export production to low wage countries.
In the end, executives will walk away with an incredible amount of money earned over what is a really short time span.
Compare this to German executives, expending many years working their way to the top; they would be aghast at the thought of selling or moving production of a company with such a long and rich heritage, to another country.
The American executive has meanwhile moved on to the next “hot market”, like financial services, no need for putting in years learning the rules. We’re making up the new rules as we go and grow, ……… unless something unexpected happens, or perhaps, what if the system was flawed and doomed to begin with?
Who cares!
I got my offshore tax haven account, my jet, my yacht, my mansion in the Hamptons, my Caribbean winter estate. etc. etc..
John Birk
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