ABSTRACT
With the turn of the twentieth century, statistical methods gained a certain limited degree of sophistication and at least for the organized labor force the picture became more clearly defined. Confronted with major gaps in hard data, this chapter turns to areas where the statistics, although admittedly imperfect, are superior to the sparse directly relevant numbers. Popular perceptions of the unemployed were reflected in part by the degree to which the jobless were differentiated from other groups of which they formed a statistical part. One primary source of information about the job market came from Arbeitsnachweise or labor exchanges. The economically depressed conditions of the late 1870's and early 1880's formed the background against which labor colonies emerged to serve the needs of those suffering from prolonged work shortages. If refuges provide statistics which reflect the degree of need met by public unemployment policy, begging affords an indication of the extent to which that need remained unmet.
