Note:The unemployment rate in 1938 was just under 20% - the US population was just under 130 million.

This photo shows when unemployment benefits began. A line of men inside a division office of the State Employment Service office at San Francisco, California, were waiting to register for benefits on one of the first days the office was open. They received from $6 to $15 per week for up to sixteen weeks.

Coinciding with the announcement that the federal unemployment census showed close to ten million persons out of work, twenty-two states began paying unemployment compensation

Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress, photographer Dorothea Lange