The Great Depression – Counting Jobs to Help People

What Happened

Long ago, many people lost their jobs.
This hard time was called the Great Depression.

In 1930, workers came to count people.
This is called a census.
The census asked people about their jobs.
Did you work yesterday?
If not, they asked more questions.
Could you work?
Were you looking for a job?
How long had you been without work?
Why did you lose your job?

Counting Jobs More Often

Leaders needed more help.
They needed to know how bad things were.
They wanted to help people get jobs again.
This help was called the New Deal.

So in 1937, the Census Bureau counted jobs two times.
This was before the next big census in 1940.

The first count went to every home.
People could choose to answer or not.

The second count was called the Enumerative Check Census.
It went to about 510,000 homes.
This was the first time the Census Bureau picked homes at random to guess about jobs for the whole country.
They picked homes along mail routes.
But some people did not live near a mail route.
So this count was not perfect either.

The first count reached every home.
But many people did not answer truthfully.
So it did not show the real number of people without jobs.

The second count picked homes at random.
It showed a better, truer number.

A New Way to Count in 1940

In 1940, census workers tried something new.
It is called sampling.
Sampling means asking only some people, not everyone.

Workers picked a small group of people.
About 5 out of 100 people were picked.
This group answered extra questions.
Then the Census Bureau used their answers to guess about everyone in the country.

This way, they could learn more.
It did not cost too much money.
It was not too much work for people to answer.

Sampling Today

For many years, census workers used sampling.
Some people answered longer question lists.
This gave more detailed information.

Today, the Census Bureau still asks extra questions.
This survey is called the American Community Survey.
It happens every month.