Fun and/or Interesting
How Bad Was the Great Depression?
The stock market crashed on Black Thursday, October 24, 1929. By the following Tuesday, it was down 25%. Many investors lost their life savings that weekend.
By 1932, one out of four people was unemployed. Wages for those who still had jobs fell precipitously. Manufacturing wages dropped 32% from 1929 to 1932. US GDP was cut nearly in half.
Thousands of farmers and other unemployed workers moved to California and elsewhere in search of work. Two-and-a-half million people left the midwestern Dust Bowl states.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average didn't rebound to its pre-Crash level until 1954.
(Source: TheBalance.com)