Part II:The Cost of Unemployment
Abstract
Part IIThe Cost of Unemployment SAGE Publications, Inc.1916DOI: 10.1177/000271621606500105 TO THE EMPLOYE Little though we know of the facts of unemployment, we know even less of its social cost. We do not realize how deeply unemployment penetrates, and how seriously it threatens, our community welfare. Although unemployment affects every interest in the community, the burden falls most heavily on the working classes. When out of work the average member of the working class loses his chief means of support. It is, therefore, a matter of life and death to him. The most immediate and vital effect of unemployment on the worker is a very serious reduction of the wage scale. Enough has been said to show how greatly unemployment reduces the pay received. In the ' absence of any general information for Philadelphia industries, an investigation made in New Jersey will best serve to indicate, in a general way, the extent to which the wage scale is depressed by unemployment. Figures collected by the New Jersey State Department of Labor from firms employing over 21,000 workers in the machine industry and from firms employing nearly 16,000 persons in the silk industry show that each of these industries worked