December 4: WPA Ends

On 4 December 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt closed Works Progress Administration, a program that was used to help people find jobs during the Great Depression. Works Progress Administration (WPA) gave opportunities to millions of Americans that were in need of a job, and in 1938 it provided jobs for three million people.

The initiator of the program was a man by the name of Harry L. Hopkins, an architect and one Roosevelt’s advisors. With Hopkins taking the helm, WPA was able to employ 8.5 million workers at the time, providing jobs during America’s most known economic struggle; the Great Depression. WPA lasted for seven years, from 1935 up to 1942.

Today, we as a nation are enduring economic struggles. Recent study shows that because of our economic struggles, birth rates are dropping. Just recently, in June 2012, statistics show that we only added 80,000 new jobs and through the actual first six months of the year, we added only an average of 150,000 jobs a month.

Meanwhile, statistics also show that last year we were able to add an average of 161,000 jobs a month through the first six months of the year. We do not have a WPA in place, nor are we in the Great Depression (momentarily), but we can’t continue to ignore the fact that we are going through hard times neither. While there seems to be almost no end in sight to this horrid economic situation, we can continue to dream that one day, there will be more opportunities for us to thrive and build on our struggles.

–Charlie Harrison

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Meet the Author: Charlie Harrison

I am a student at Schoolcraft College where he is also Vice-President of Leadership in Phi Theta Kappa. I plan to transfer and get a degree in teaching and eventually become an English Professor.

Posted on by Schoolcraft College Student
Categories: American History: Modern
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16 Responses

  1. Christina Sammut says:
    4 December 2012 at 4:44 pm

    One fact that I happen to find very interesting is that the Franklin closed WPA. Today the United States is in a similar situation when it comes to the economy. People have lost jobs, businesses have gone under, and the government is supporting a larger number of people than it was before. We need things like the WPA to help our economy. Now more than ever we are outsourcing most of our everyday products that we use. it is much easier to find products made in China than it is to find products made in the United States. Back when the Great Depression was going on, there were more products being made in the United States, and they still had problems with people finding jobs. Now most of the products aren’t made in the United States so it is clear as to why it is difficult to find a job. Based upon how the economy goes throughout history, it is shown that there is always a recession, a recovery, and then a boom. the boom is what starts the economy all over again. right now we are just in the middle of the cycle and only time will tell how long it takes in order for us all to recover.

    Reply
  2. Dylan Cook says:
    4 December 2012 at 4:59 pm

    Very interesting. This reminds me somewhat, not completely of President Obama’s stimulas package. Although this is for Farming and agriculture while Obama had a plan set in to repair the nations roads and bridges. This put millions of people to work and helped repair the much needed roads across this nation. With the advancement of the Highway, interstate systems in the 40’s and 50’s most bridges and roads were built at this time. And as we all know things never last, and they are deteriorating. This is why The MDOT plans to completely close down I-96 from Newburgh to Telegraph in 2014, repairing over 35 bridges along this stretch of highway.

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  3. Sara Papp says:
    4 December 2012 at 7:38 pm

    Very interesting…. I think it’s great that they had a program to help those who didn’t have jobs at the time. Yet now people who have been laid have not much helpful recourse to help them find a job. I feel that now the United States is basically the same with the economy. More products are most defiantly being made in China than in the United States. However back when the Great Depression was going on most things were American made. It is extremely difficult to find a job now especially since 90% of factory jobs are in other countries.

    Reply
  4. Cameron White says:
    4 December 2012 at 7:53 pm

    Roosevelt hoped to preserve the skills and self-respect of these unemployed people. I believe it was 1929 when the Great Depression started and America’s economy went to a deep hole. As stated WPA only lasted about 8 years but in that short time frame it was able to build structures, such as airports, and bridges. It paved 651,000 miles of road, built 78,000 bridges, 8,000 parks, and 800 airports. I think thats pretty good for 8 years and with less technology than what we have today. Upon recognizing that WPA had run its course, in 1939 when America entered WW2, Americans began working for military purposes such as building machines and this really caused WPA to slow down.

    I personally think that if we support more America made products then we can open more jobs and build the economy.

    Reply
  5. Shelby Mann says:
    4 December 2012 at 10:02 pm

    Very interesting! I wanted to learn a little bit more on the ending of the WPA so, I did a little research on the difference that it made. My research brought me to Yahoo where I found what Cameron had mentioned, that the WPA building program constructed 116,000 buildings, 78,000 bridges, and 651,000 miles of road. This also brought improvements to 800 airports. But, not only that, the WPA did a lot of funding. The WPA funded different art, history, culture of America, and humanities programs.
    The WPA program helped with getting jobs back into society. Even though the United States is doing better economically, I pray that more jobs become available.

    Reply
  6. Andrea Baird says:
    6 December 2012 at 8:23 pm

    This is such an interesting time period. I feel as though this time period is relatable to some aspects of life today, due to the current economic struggles. I find that the points that Shelby had made are very interesting. I did not know that the WPA had funded different art types. I find that art from this time period can say a lot on the mood and environment that the artist was in. I also expanded my research on the art of the Great Depression. I have found that today there is a collection in Illinois with about 500 works of art. One famous women of this area was Dorothea Lange. She learned to capture the pain and agony of the time, and turn it into art. One of her most famous works of art is “Migrant Mother”. Even though this period did not help many people thrive, Dorothea was able to create and capture a memorable time in American History.

    Reply
  7. Andrea Baird says:
    8 December 2012 at 1:59 pm

    In addition to my previous comment, about art of the time of the Great Depression, I also found some very interesting facts on the similarities of the Great Depression and the economic struggles that America is still “recovering” from today. It has been said that President Obama and Franklin Roosevelt, have both faced a time in America’s history that has been extremely hard for American business. Sadly most of America’s products have gone overseas. Both President Roosevelt and President Obama have worked hard to design new programs to get America back to work.

    Reply
  8. Sommer Guy says:
    8 December 2012 at 2:53 pm

    It seems to me that you can compare the WPA to todays unemployment agencies as they also try and help people to find work. I also read that the WPA was extremely helpful for finding work for women and African Americans. They worked on building new roads, public buildings, and parks not only helping the economy but giving the people working through the WPA a sense of pride.

    Reply
  9. Gino Pasquali says:
    8 December 2012 at 4:56 pm

    Such an interesting and great time to see. I think it is really neat that this program existed to help out families back then. Even though it lasted for only seven years, it was a crucial time for people and families before. Things like the WPA are what we need as it helps our economy and families across the country.

    Reply
  10. Justin Ghannam says:
    8 December 2012 at 10:37 pm

    Although there isn’t any WPA exactly in place, as Sommer stated there are numerous unemployment agencies. Additionally there are too many potential ways to receive free money from the government, and one of them happens to come from being unemployed. Additionally I think you could relate to the recent thrive of jobs we’ve had at least in the second half of 2012 to Hurricane Sandy, Although you could easily say it was more harm done, it was a hurricane after all. There were 82,000 people from New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania alone who requested unemployment. The original point being however is that the government greatly assists in creating jobs after hardships and struggles like this to get the devastated area and hopefully the economy a minor jump start once again.

    Reply
  11. Hannah Weaver says:
    9 December 2012 at 2:24 pm

    The WPA not only helped men find jobs during the Great Depression, but the program helped women and children too. Donations of food, clothing, shelter, and other resources were given to families in need. Parks and recreation centers were also constructed in order to help America get back on the right track.

    The National Youth Administration (NYA) was a branch of the WPA that targeted helping both male and female children find jobs during the Great Depression.

    Reply
  12. Trevor Corn says:
    9 December 2012 at 2:32 pm

    WPA did help with providing Americans with jobs, however, many limitations had to be placed upon workers in order to keep providing said jobs. Workers were not allowed to be paid for over 30 hours of work time per week, it also did not teach them any other skills that would help them aqquire another future job. It did also help to shatter the belief that woman should leave the working to the man of the house, as 90% of the women who’s husbands aqquired jobs through the WPA, only 18% were living at home. This was very odd considering the average age of a worker was roughly 40 years of age.

    Reply
  13. Clariss_riss3 says:
    9 December 2012 at 10:54 pm

    After reading this posting, I looked up a few different jobs that WPA created. Looking at this it made me wonder if today we could create more jobs, by having people tear down, or clean up old buildings that have been vacant for decades from certain cities. Everytime I am on my way to see my family in downtown Clevland I always look at these buildings with broken windows, and wonder what it use to look like, and how it could look like if people came together to reconstruct them. I mean the majority of the buildings that have been vacant for so long is property owned by the government, so why not use these buildings or potential buildings for something useful. This would create more constructing jobs just like it did while WPA helped out many people in need of work.

    Reply
  14. Mike Leon says:
    9 December 2012 at 11:46 pm

    This article is so intresting for the fact that we are going through a similar time as when the WPA was presented. personally i don’t think like its an awful idea to re-establish a program which is similar with certain changes to it obviously. In all this is a very well written article and has some very intriguing facts that jump out.

    Reply
  15. Nick Kalte says:
    10 December 2012 at 1:50 pm

    The funny thing is that WPA is needed now. People are without jobs now as well and even though we are in a recovery, it’s the slowest recovery in history. We need a WPA to help people today. College degrees mean nothing now a days and people with 2 year and even 4 year degrees are managers at mcdonalds. People are struggling which is exactly what was happening back than so why not make a modern version of the WPA to help employ people and bring in more money for the consumer. It may seem crazy but when people have money, they spend it. Which is the problem, not enough money is being spent because not enough is being brought in.

    Reply

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