The unemployed: their income and expenditure

Certain facts concerning the economic situation of the unemployed are brought out by a study of the income and expenditure of ERA applicants in Cambridge, and recipients of relief in four other Massachussetts towns. Income was derived from earnings from odd jobs, relief and gifts. Expenditure consistently exceeded income by 15 to 20 per cent. The difference was met by the use of savings, where possible, but largely by unpaid bills. Rent, medical services and food were most frequently unpaid for. It appears, therefore, that this group of unemployed, having lost their regular jobs, supplemented irregular earnings by relief and gifts, but failed to make ends meet. The burden of unemployment fell partly on the unemployed themselves through reduction of income, but doubly on certin elements in the community, such as landlords, doctors and grocers. The question may be asked as to whether the standard of living of these workers had been forced so low that reliance on credit was necessary for existence, or whether the difference between income and expenditure represented unwillimgness or inability to economize.