REC/GOV/031. Unemployment Commission, Connecticut.

In December 1930, Governor John Trumbull and Governor-elect Wilbur Cross formed the Connecticut State Emergency Committee on Employment. The committee was charged with cooperating with state and federal agencies in investigating and mitigating the effects of serious unemployment and with encouraging employers to gather statistics and other information, so that a solution to unemployment could be devised. The Committee reported its findings in February 1931, and later in July, it went out of business. Its successor was the Connecticut Unemployment Commission authorized by the General Assembly under Special Acts, 1931, Ch. 468. It continued the work of its predecessor, working with local groups providing relief and served as a point of contact for federal relief activities such as the distribution of Army blankets and clothing, sale of wheat and cotton, and the Civilian Conservation Corps employment program. The Commission reported its findings in a report in December 1932 and went out of existence at the end of June 1933, succeeded by the new Connecticut Emergency Relief Commission. RG 031 contains minutes of meetings, financial records, general subject files consisting of correspondence, newspaper clippings and other publications, and reports, together with files of town surveys of relief organizations, construction projects, and payroll and man hours. In addition, the collection contains a scrapbook of newspaper clippings and files of the New Haven office.