The Depression in Wales: unemployment, migration and government response

Overview

Regional variation in Welsh unemployment, why unemployment in the valleys was so often long term and effects of prolonged unemployment on families in the coalfield.

What you need to know

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Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   How did the Wall Street Crash of 1929 affect Britain?

   Model answer

   It triggered a collapse in world trade and prices, and Britain's export industries, already weak, lost orders on a scale that pushed unemployment above two million.

2. 2

   Why did the Depression hit Wales harder than most of Britain?

   Model answer

   Wales depended on exporting coal, steel and tinplate, the very industries world depression hit hardest, and it had almost no new light industry to take up the slack.

3. 3

   Roughly what proportion of insured Welsh workers were unemployed at the worst of the Depression?

   Model answer

   Well over a third, a figure far above the British average and at its peak above forty per cent.

4. 4

   Give an example of the regional variation in Welsh unemployment.

   Model answer

   The worst-hit valley towns such as Merthyr Tydfil and Brynmawr had well over half their insured workers idle, while Cardiff and the rural counties suffered much less.

5. 5

   Explain why unemployment in the valleys was so often long term.

   Model answer

   When a colliery closed there was no other employer in the valley, so a man had no alternative work within reach and could be out of work for years.

6. 6

   Describe the effects of prolonged unemployment on families in the coalfield.

   Model answer

   Diet, clothing and housing deteriorated, tuberculosis and malnutrition rose, savings and furniture were sold, and men lost the standing that came with providing for a household.

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