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It was the largest and most comprehensive New Deal agency, employing millions of people and affecting every locality. It continued and expanded the FERA relief programs begun under Herbert Hoover and continued under Franklin D. Roosevelt. Headed by Harry L. Hopkins, the WPA provided jobs and income to the unemployed during the Great Depression in the United States. It built many public buildings and roads, and as well operated a large arts project. Until it was closed down by Congress in 1943, it was the largest employer in the country--indeed, the largest employer in most states. Only unemployed people on relief were eligible for most of its jobs. The hourly wages were the prevailing wages in the area, but workers could not work more than 20-30 hours a week. Before 1940 there was no training involved to teach people new skills. Overview
Types of ProjectsAbout 75 percent of employment and 75 percent of WPA expenditures went to public facilities such as highways, streets, public buildings, airports, utilities, small dams, sewers, parks, libraries, and recreational fields. The WPA built 650,000 miles of roads, 78,000 bridges, 125,000 buildings, and seven hundred miles of airport runways. Seven percent of the budget was allocated to arts projects, presenting 225,000 concerts to audiences totaling 150 million, and producing almost 475,000 artworks. Though some 90% of WPA projects were directed at unskilled blue-collar workers, it also took in unemployed white-collar artists, musicians, actors, and writers in such projects as the Federal Theater Project and the Federal Writers' Project. Over 8,500,000 Americans were hired through the WPA mostly to work in manual labor, building roads and making parks. Unemployed artists and writers were given work through a branch of the WPA known as the Federal Writers’ Project. Among the most compelling products of the Writers' Project are the compelling interviews with former slaves. A sampling of projects includes:
Camp David;
Federal One
Federal Writers' Project;
Historical Records Survey;
Federal Theatre Project;
Federal Art Project;
Federal Music Project;
Worker ProfileThe target recipients were household heads on relief (about 15% of whom were women). Youth programs were operated separately by the National Youth Administration, or NYA. The average worker was about 40 years old (about the same as the average family head on relief).
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