Rising Unemployment In 1933, the unemployment rate was about 25% up from 3% in 1929 The young, elderly, and minorities were hit hardest. African Americans were among the first to lose their jobs. Their unemployment rate was as high as 50% in some cities. As the Depression wore on, employers often fired women to give their jobs to men with families to support.

Rising Unemployment 1 in 7 businesses fail. Hours and wages were cut. People were losing jobs, then life savings, then their homes.

Farmers Lose Farms Low demand meant farmers could not sell enough crops. They could not make mortgage payments back to the bank. Farmers who could not pay their bills or sell their farms due to low property values lost their homes to foreclosure. Wages went down and debt went up. Share Croppers and Tenant Farmers earned little or no profits.

Financial Woes Hurt American Families Families who could not afford rent sometimes squeezed in with relatives or friends. Thousands, many of them teenagers, left home when costs rose too high. Marriage rates, birth rates, and divorce rates dropped because many people wanted to wait until their finances improved before taking these steps. Suicide Rates went up.

Evictions When people could not pay rent, landlords evicted them forcing them to stay with friends, family, shelters, barns, jails, parks, etc. Hoovervilles were shacks made of tarpaper, old crates, and other scrap materials where families lived. (Government Reaction) Desertion rates increased as fathers could not deal with their failure to provide for the family. Teenagers often left home to ride the railroads from town to town in search of work.

Hunger and Starvation According to surveys in the 1930s, as many as one fifth of children in New York suffered from malnutrition. In coal mining areas up to 90% of children were malnourished. The illness rate among the unemployed was 66% higher than among families with a full-time wage earner. People resorted to trash picking, stealing and begging while Soup kitchens and breadlines sprang up across the country to feed the hungry.

Dust Bowl and Droughts The dust in the Great Plains storms was so thick that the storms were known as black blizzards. The prolonged Great Plains drought affected 100 million acres of farmland in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas. This region was known as the Dust Bowl. Government established the Soil Conservation Service to promote better farming practices in the hope of reducing erosion. Depopulation- the Dust Bowl forced hundreds of thousands to leave the mid-west for places like California

The Great Flood In 1936, a series a harsh storms hit the Northeast causing massive flooding. Pennsylvania was the state hit hardest by the Great Flood of More than 82,000 buildings were destroyed and 84 people died. Floods knocked out water, electricity and telephone service After the 1936 floods, President Roosevelt signed a national flood program into law. Congress did not support the bill previously.

Struggling to Get By (Oregon) People who had land often grew food, either to eat or to trade for other necessities. Some people sold apples on the street, hoping to make $1.15 a day. During the 1932–33 school year, about 80,000 college students dropped out of school. Most would not return to finish their degrees. Many had to trade in better paying jobs for ANY work at all.

Looking for Help (Georgia) It was hard for people to admit they needed help. One man said he and his family lived on bread and water for three weeks before he asked for relief. In New York City, charitable donations increased from $4.5 million in 1930 to $21 million in Local and state governments tried to help people who were out of work with public assistance, but they soon ran out of funds because too many needed help.