What Were Some of the Jobs Available During the Great Depression?

Available jobs during the Great Depression included working as servants or clerks, jobs in textile factories and positions with one of the railroad companies. There were jobs available but, with so many people unemployed, there was fierce competition for steady employment.

During the height of the Great Depression, 37 percent of all nonfarm workers were without jobs. It was a time when families fell apart and people lost their homes and farms. Farmers couldn’t sell their crops, so more than 750,000 farms were lost to foreclosure and many people starved. Women and children found jobs where they could, and the men, whose job it was to support their families, felt useless when they had to rely on their families to support them.

The Depression brought with it a halt to industrial production and construction. African-American women were often the first to be laid off from domestic positions and white women took their places. Women found jobs as seamstresses, maids and servants. Many people also built toys from home for a salary of around $5 per week.

The Great Depression lasted from 1929 until the United States entered World War II in 1941. It wasn’t until then that more jobs were created and the economy began to rebound.