what were some of the jobs in the 1930's?

Answer 1

JOBS, What jobs?

The unemployment rate during the 1930's peaked out at about 35 percent (one in three). That is what the U.S. Labor Department recorded and reported but I don't believe it. It probably got as high as 50 percent since there were so many homeless there was no way to count them.

There were the vagabonds, the wanderers, the evicted, the okies, the "bums",the hobo's, the homeless, the suicidal, the paupers and the forgotten.

Every once in a while some big corporation would put an advertisement in the paper indicating they were going to hire 5 or 10 workers. The jobs were always menial and low paid but thousands upon thousands would show up and invariably a riot would ensue. People were ready to kill for a job, no matter how menial it might be.

The employer set the rules, all the rules, for anyone and everyone who was employed.

There was no such thing as workers or employee rights. The Unions were both powerless and worthless.

I worked on Wall Street in 1939-1941. The Company I worked for was named "Foster, Brown & Co.". We would put in a 40 hour week (Saturdays were 9 to 12:30) and if overtime was necessary you stayed and worked. You never dared to say "no" since you would be fired on the spot!

When I joined Foster Brown & Co. in 1939 there were 3 runners.Within several weeks the two other runners were let go and I did the work of all three! I did not get one additional penny for the fact that I was now, literally, doing the work of three! I, quite literally, broke my a--!

You never got overtime pay but you got $1.00 for dinner. I remember working until midnight, night after night and I got $1.00 for dinner each night. Some weeks we would put in 60 hours with no extra pay!

Of course you showed up at work the next morning promptly on time or you would get fired!

The jobs were equivalent to slavery and complete servitude. You never but never questioned your boss, you did everything you were told to do, no matter what it might entail. You had no personal life, you worked.

If you stayed out sick the days pay was deducted from your pay check. There were no vacation rights. Sometime you got paid for a national holiday and sometime you did not. Frequently you worked on a national holiday.


You had no job rights, only the right to get fired.

ASIDE:My brother Alan worked for Foster, Brown & Co. and he got me the job in the runners department (I was the department). He was a chalk marker (marked the stock tape prices up on the black board). He left Foster Brown to go to war. A month or so after he left I left Foster Brown for the same reason.

Alan was killed in combat on March 25, 1944. I had been wounded some time in late December of 1944 and was in the Army hospital at that time. Margaret H. Faircloth, the lovely secretary to H. Elbert Foster called on my mother and told her that anything they could do to help would be done. My mother, as proud as she was, thanked them for their kind offer but asked for nothing.

In 1950 Ida and I returned from France where I had been on a Fulbright scholarship. From France I had applied to the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in order to take a Ph.D. in economics. I wanted to study under Joseph Shumpeter, a master in busines cycle theory and economic history. He died of a cerebral hamorrage just before we returned home.

Neverthless when we got home Ida and I went to Harvard to see if I could financially swing it. They offered Ida a job as a secretary and offered me a $500 scholarship for my degree. After we went through all the financial calcualtions we came up with the fact that we would be about $500 short. I called H. Elbert Foster and he invited me to lunch at the Wall Street club. I then asked him if I could borrow the $500 I estimated we would be short. He said (as if I will ever forget), "Pete, I think it is about time for you to get a job." That was that, he wouldn't lend me $500 (he was then a multimillionaire) and I didn't go to Harvard .

About 7 years later my mentor, Lionel D. Edie told H. Elbert Foster I was his new financial consultant and H. Elbert puked! Such are the ironies of life!"

There were hundreds upon hundreds always waiting to take your place!

I had it easy since I worked in an office. The worker who was skilled or semi-skilled in manufacturing had absolutely nothing he or she could do. There were no jobs at all and manufacturing was flat on its back, their operations were running about a third of their capacity!

Nobody ever considered changing jobs since you were lucky to have one to begin with!

My wife went down to Wall Street in 1942 and she was interviewed for a job with Westinghouse.

My wife was told by the personnel director that:


"We would never hire an Italian particularly a Italian Catholic if it were not for the fact that there is a war on."

Six months after my wife was hired she was the secretary to the Head of the New York operation of Westinghouse!

So much for stupid prejudice!

I got my job through family links. My wife got hers the same way. That was the only way you would find a job. If you did not have a relative working some place then TS!

My first job (I was totally unskilled) paid 25 cents an hour. My wifes first job paid the same. It was in a Channel factory and she filled bottles with Chanel Number 5 by using an eyedropper! She got paid by the number of bottles she filled. To this day she cannot stand the odor of Chanel!

I left GE for a job on Wall street that paid an additional $2.50 a week. Don't laugh since $2.50 was the equivalent of one weeks lunches! Lunch for 25 cents consisted of 2 eggs, French fried potatoes, 2 slices of toast with jam, coffee and apple pie for desert.

GE told me when I left that I would be blackballed for life with GE since I only gave them one weeks notice! Twenty five years later I was the economic consultant to the Board of Dirctors of General Electric!

My brother Bill was a highly trained mathematician. He worked for the U.S. Life insurance Company in the Actuarial Department. He was paid $18.00 a week.

My sister, Cora, worked for a casualty insurance company. She was a file clerk and got $15.00 a week and put in enormous overtime, all without any additional pay

Answer 2

Jobs during the 1930's were very scarce. America was in the worst economic depression in its' history. Some jobs were Postman, Fireman, Policeman,Railroad worker, dress maker, shoe salesman, and the beginning of the Fuller Brush man.There was always the army, navy and marine corps.In 1932 when FDR became President, he formed the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) which had men building roads and even constructing the TVA to bring electricity to some Southern States. Some people worked in the 5 and 10 Woolworth stores.
For the most part people were hard hit and life was difficult.It was not until the late 1930'2 and early 1940's that America started to come out of the depression.

Answer 3

Just as everyone answered!! WHATEVER YOU COULD GET!! A very tough time! But people are very ingenious when up against a brick wall!! Marvelous people! Roosevelt's WPA put a lot of people to work beginning in 1933! People helped each other! People shared! People cared! The War effort in the early '40's brought women and men into new industrial work and basically pulled American out of the Great Depression!

Answer 4

The Federal Government initiated wide range of sweeping reforms designed to create employment prospects. These included:
Afforestation and Land Management
Civic and Civil Construction programs,
Farming and Ordardary workers schemes.

Why not check the Web for the Theodore Rooservelt White House years?

Answer 5

WPA put people to work doing some major jobs across the US. Hoover Dam, Grand Coulee Dam, Lincoln Tunnel, and my personal favorite, Fort Peck Dam in MONTANA!