Did the UK experience high employment rates during the Great Depression of the 1930s?

The 1930s, globally, were a really tough time, marked by something called the Great Depression. It started with a massive stock market crash in 1929 in the United States and quickly spread worldwide, hitting the UK hard. Think of it as a domino effect – businesses struggled, factories closed, and people lost their jobs on a massive scale. Unemployment soared. In the UK, at its peak, unemployment reached well over 20%, meaning that more than one in five people were out of work. This led to widespread poverty, hardship, and social unrest. So, the idea that the UK had high employment during this period is simply not true; it was quite the opposite. The Depression cast a long shadow, and its impact on employment is a key part of understanding British social history.