Americans faced many problems during the Great Depression. Unemployment was one of the most dramatic problems. Document 1, a bar graph by the U.S bureau of the census, illustrates that unemployment jumped from 3% in 1929 to 23% in 1932. Unemployment was a huge factor that caused poverty during the Great Depression. Unemployed people received only a dollar a day from the governmental relief programs.But this wasn't enough. Those people lost their homes, were in debt, and were starving. Unemployment affected many people across the country including farmers and city workers. The unemployment rates were triggered by the stock market crash of 1929, when businesses instantly lost money and had to lay-off workers . Americans struggled with unemployment during the Great Depression.
The Great Depression caused Americans many other problems, as well. For example, the banking failure also created drastic poverty. Document 2, a photo and article, explains that banks began to collapse and industrial production ground to a halt. Banks across the country were collapsing and people everywhere in America were losing their life savings. After people lost money in the stock market crash they panicked. The people tried withdrawing all their money from banks causing, the banks to close and many people to lose all the money in that bank. When all those people became destitute, they became homeless and unemployed causing businesses to lose money. Thus repeating the cycle that forced more layoffs. Banking failures caused many people and businesses to lose money, greatly contributing to