Frederick E. Croxton

An Experiment in the Measurement of Unemployment

This paper deals with an experiment in the measurement of unemployment in Columbus, Ohio, during the five year period from 1921 to 1925. The study was made by a house-to-house canvass in the autumn of each of the years. Selected areas of the city were visited and the same territories were covered upon each occasion. The study originated when, in the fall of 1921, Columbus, like many another city, undertook to deal with the economic maladjustments in its population incident to the then prevalent unemployment. There was organized for this purpose the Mayors Emergency Unemployment Committee which essayed as one of its first tasks the determination of the size of the problem to be faced. How many people were idle? Had their idleness been of long duration? To what extent was part-time work present? How severe was unemployment among heads of households? The National Conference on Unemployment, called by President Harding, after considerable discussion had estimated the unemployed in the United States at that time at 3,500,000 to 5,500,000. The wide divergence in these figures emphasized the need for more accurate data if relief measures of any kind were to be effectively developed. Estimates of the probable needs for the coming winter were prepared by social agencies and laid before the Committee. These estimates were based upon the demands which had been made upon each agency during the summer and early autumn in relation to past years and upon the judgment of its executives in regard to probable future developments. The Mayors Committee was anxious to secure as definite information as possible, and therefore proposed to the Ohio State University that that institution co6perate in the planning and execution of a study of the employment situation. It so happened that Professor Mary Louise Mark and the writer had plans already under way for an analysis of unemployment in the city. This, it was believed, would furnish to our students valuable experience in collecting and assembling data. In 1921, the first of the five years in which the study was made, the investigation was under the joint auspices of the University and of the Mayors Committee. The extension of the study through the next four years grew out of a suggestion made by the Mayors Committee in its final report in May, 1922.