ABSTRACT
The Great Depression of the early 1930s reached its trough in 1933 when about one-quarter of the civilian labour force was unemployed. Thereafter there was a slow recovery with rising output and incomes, and falling unemployment, interrupted in the second half of 1937 by a severe decline in activity. This lasted until mid-1938 when the revival from deep depression was resumed. Average unemployment in 1937 was 14–3 per cent, and GNP just equalled the 1929 level. In 1939 and again in 1940 GNP rose by https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315019710/a1105c0d-2e1f-4300-b8b8-54c46fa304f7/content/8by2_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> per cent over the previous year, pushed up at first by rising government expenditures and housebuilding, and later by the revival of business fixed investment. Inventory investment rose during the recovery but rearmament played only a small role. In 1940 GNP per head and PCE per head surpassed the 1929 levels for the first time. America had at last struggled out of her decade of misery.
