Editing Unemployment (section)

===20th century===
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| image1    = Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R79053, Arbeitsloser auf Arbeitssuche.jpg
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| caption1  = An unemployed [[Germans|German]], 1928. Unemployment in [[Weimar Republic|Germany]] reached almost 30% of the workforce after the Great Depression.
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| caption2  = Unemployed [[Canadians|Canadian]] men, marching for jobs during the Great Depression to Bathurst Street United Church, [[Toronto]], [[Ontario]] in [[Canada]], 1930
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There were labor shortages during [[World War I]].<ref name="Jerome 1934"/> Ford Motor Co. doubled wages to reduce turnover. After 1925, unemployment gradually began to rise.<ref>{{cite book |title=Mass Production, the Stock Market Crash and the Great Depression |last=Beaudreau |first=Bernard C.|year=1996 |publisher=Authors Choice Press|location=New York, Lincoln, Shanghi }}</ref>

The 1930s saw the [[Great Depression]] impact unemployment across the globe. In Germany and the United States, the unemployment rate reached about 25% in 1932.<ref>[http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/depression/about.htm About the Great Depression] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081220090243/http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/depression/about.htm |date=20 December 2008 }}, University of Illinois</ref>

In some towns and cities in the northeast of England, unemployment reached as high as 70%; the national unemployment level peaked at more than 22% in 1932.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.blacksacademy.net/content/3156.html |title=Social conditions in Britain in the 1930s: employment and unemployment |publisher=Blacksacademy.net |access-date=27 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110910191113/http://www.blacksacademy.net/content/3156.html |archive-date=10 September 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Unemployment in Canada reached 27% at the depth of the Depression in 1933.<ref>[http://www.canadianeconomy.gc.ca/English/economy/1929_39depression.html 1929–1939 – The Great Depression] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090127051620/https://canadianeconomy.gc.ca/english/economy/1929_39depression.html |date=27 January 2009 }}, Source: [[Bank of Canada]]</ref> In 1929, the U.S. unemployment rate averaged 3%.<ref>[http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/Steindl.GD.Recovery Economic Recovery in the Great Depression], Frank G. Steindl, Oklahoma State University {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130928064254/http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/Steindl.GD.Recovery |date=28 September 2013 }}</ref>

[[File:WPA Art Poster, Work Promotes Confidence.jpeg|thumb|left|upright|WPA poster promoting the benefits of employment]]
In the US, the [[Works Progress Administration]] (1935–43) was the largest make-work program. It hired men (and some women) off the relief roles ("dole") typically for unskilled labor.<ref>Nancy E. Rose, ''Put to Work: The WPA and Public Employment in the Great Depression'' (2nd ed. 2009)</ref>
During the New Deal, over three million unemployed young men were taken out of their homes and placed for six months into more than 2600 work camps managed by the [[Civilian Conservation Corps]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Finegan |first=Chance |url=http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2008/09/park-history-spirit-civilian-conservation-corps |title=National Park History: "The Spirit of the Civilian Conservation Corps" |publisher=National Parks Traveler |date=11 September 2008 |access-date=27 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100905182850/http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2008/09/park-history-spirit-civilian-conservation-corps |archive-date=5 September 2010 |url-status=dead  }}</ref>

Unemployment in the United Kingdom fell later in the 1930s as the Depression eased, and it remained low (in single figures) after [[World War II]].

Fredrick Mills found that in the US, 51% of the decline in work hours was due to the fall in production and 49% was from increased productivity.<ref name="Rifkin 1995">{{cite book| author = Rifkin, Jeremy | title = The End of Work: The Decline of the Global Labor Force and the Dawn of the Post-Market Era | publisher = Putnam Publishing Group | year = 1995| isbn = 978-0-87477-779-6| title-link = The End of Work }}</ref>

By 1972, [[unemployment in the United Kingdom]] had crept back up above 1,000,000, and it was even higher by the end of the decade, with inflation also being high. Although the [[monetarist]] economic policies of [[Margaret Thatcher]]'s [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] government saw inflation reduced after 1979, unemployment soared in the early 1980s and in 1982, it exceeded 3,000,000, a level that had not been seen for some 50 years. That represented one in eight of the workforce, with unemployment exceeding 20% in some places that had relied on declining industries such as coal mining.<ref name="politics.co.uk">{{cite web |url=http://www.politics.co.uk/briefings-guides/issue-briefs/employment/unemployment-$366619.htm |title=Unemployment, issue briefing |publisher=Politics.co.uk |access-date=27 July 2011 |archive-date=9 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110609124435/http://www.politics.co.uk/briefings-guides/issue-briefs/employment/unemployment-$366619.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

However, it was a time of high unemployment in all other major industrialised nations as well.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Phelps |first1=Edmund S. |author-link=Edmund S. Phelps |last2=Zoega |first2=Gylfi |chapter=The Incidence of Increased Unemployment in the Group of Seven, 1970–94 |pages=177–210 |title=Essays in Economic Theory, Growth and Labor Markets |editor1-first=George |editor1-last=Bitros |editor2-first=Yannis |editor2-last=Katsoulacos |location=Cheltenham |publisher=Edward Elgar |year=2002 |isbn=978-1-84064-739-6 }}</ref> By the spring of 1983, unemployment had risen by 6% in the previous 12 months, compared to 10% in Japan, 23% in the US, and 34% in [[West Germany]] (seven years before [[Reunification of Germany|Reunification]]).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/inquire/p/b88b2934-f50c-4ea7-9545-07ecda47865f |title=CPA Poster Collection |publisher=Conservative Party Archive Poster Collection |access-date=17 October 2018 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110812184047/http://bodley30.bodley.ox.ac.uk:8180/luna/servlet/detail/ODLodl~6~6~51795~105151%3A1983-08 |archive-date=12 August 2011  }}</ref>

Unemployment in the United Kingdom remained above 3,000,000 until the spring of 1987, when the economy enjoyed a boom.<ref name="politics.co.uk"/> By the end of 1989, unemployment had fallen to 1,600,000. However, inflation had reached 7.8%, and the following year, it reached a nine-year high of 9.5%; leading to increased interest rates.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://safalra.com/other/historical-uk-inflation-price-conversion/ |title=Historical UK Inflation And Price Conversion |publisher=Safalra's Website |date=15 April 2010 |access-date=27 July 2011 |archive-date=30 August 2012 |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20120830011628/http://safalra.com/other/historical-uk-inflation-price-conversion/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Another [[early 1990s recession|recession occurred from 1990 to 1992]]. Unemployment began to increase, and by the end of 1992, nearly 3,000,000 in the United Kingdom were unemployed, a number that was soon lowered by a strong economic recovery.<ref name="politics.co.uk"/> With inflation down to 1.6% by 1993, unemployment then began to fall rapidly and stood at 1,800,000 by early 1997.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/16/business/jobless-rate-in-britain-drops-to-six-year-low.html |title=Jobless Rate in Britain Drops to Six-Year Low |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=16 January 1997 |access-date=27 July 2011}}</ref>