What Is the Works Progress Administration (WPA)?

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was a program created by then-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1935 to boost employment and the purchasing power of cash-strapped Americans. Implemented at the height of the Great Depression, the WPA sought to eradicate high unemployment by placing millions of skilled and unskilled workers in a broad range of jobs covering everything from the construction of infrastructure and public structures to the arts and manufacturing. 

The WPA, renamed the Work Projects Administration in 1939, was eventually terminated in 1943, shortly after the U.S. became involved in World War II and transitioned to a war economy. By that stage, it had succeeded in giving jobs to 8.5 million Americans at a total cost to the federal government of approximately $11 billion ($216 billion in 2021 dollars).

Understanding the Works Progress Administration (WPA)

The WPA was part of Roosevelt’s New Deal, a series of domestic programs designed to help the U.S. economy bounce back from the Great Depression. The idea was conceived in 1934, when about one-fifth of the country was out of work and unemployed, and introduced the following year by executive order under the authority of the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935.

Nowadays, the creation of jobs is something of a political campaign cliché. However, during the 1930s, the concept of putting people on government payrolls was relatively unheard of, as was the distribution of welfare checks at the federal level, which Roosevelt also started.

Roosevelt’s plan to spend billions of dollars getting millions of Americans back to work was a colossal idea. With money in short supply and the economy at rock bottom, the government couldn’t afford any setbacks.

Project proposals usually began at the local level and were then vetted by several parties farther up the chain of command. City and county governments would assess their needs and unemployment figures and send any proposals that they had to a WPA state office. If the state office thought a proposal had merit, it would then forward the proposal to WPA headquarters in Washington, D.C., which would take a look and, if happy, send it to the president’s office for final approval.

This sometimes-lengthy process ensured that taxpayers’ money would be allocated where it was most needed and, crucially, prevented the federal government from randomly dishing out funds to local governments.

Transition to War Economy Limits Use of WPA

After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, many Americans were deployed to fight in World War II or called upon to help build weapons and support the war effort back home. Because of this and the WPA, unemployment was close to 0%. In December 1942, Roosevelt called for an end to the WPA, stating that it was no longer necessary.

A presidential letter, penned in December of that year, called for the WPA to be terminated. Six months later, in June, the order was executed and the WPA officially shut down.

WPA Jobs

The WPA is often associated with putting unskilled men to work on public infrastructure projects. However, in reality, the types of jobs available to the unemployed were much vaster.

“An enumeration of all the projects undertaken and completed by the WPA during its lifetime would include almost every type of work imaginable...from the construction of highways to the extermination of rats; from the building of stadiums to the stuffing of birds; from the improvement of airplane landing fields to the making of Braille books; from the building of over a million of the now famous privies to the playing of the world’s greatest symphonies,” wrote Donald S. Howard, a social work educator and administrator who served as director of Research and Statistics for the Colorado Emergency Relief Administration and the WPA from 1934 to 1936.

The largest number of WPA employment opportunities, 75% according to the “Final Report on the WPA Program,” came in the form of engineering and construction jobs. Participants in these programs were responsible for building new schools, hospitals, roads, storm drains, sanitary sewer lines, bridges, airfields, and roads, among other things.

Though allocated much less money, Federal Project Number One, which gave jobs to artists, musicians, actors, and writers, also often comes up in conversation when discussing the WPA. Roosevelt believed that artists could entertain and inspire the population during the grim days of the Great Depression and enlisted their services to help achieve this mission and get the nation’s creative juices flowing.

WPA Legacy

While it wasn’t without controversy, the WPA is largely celebrated for helping America to survive the Great Depression and claw its way back to economic prosperity. The program also left its mark in other ways, gifting us various smartly designed public buildings and structures and a thriving arts scene.

The letters “WPA” are enshrined on many American landmarks, including the Hoover Dam, the John Adams Building of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., the San Francisco Mint, the River Walk in San Antonio, and the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis.

Meanwhile, the WPA’s various art programs paved the way for the creation of the National Foundation of the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities as well as introducing the world to renowned artists such as Nelson Algren, Saul Bellow, Aaron Douglas, Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Jacob Lawrence, and Richard Wright.

Some people also credit the WPA with helping to erase, or at least ease, inequality. Though not entirely free of discrimination, the program’s general efforts to boost the number of African Americans and women in the workforce marked a vast improvement for that particular period in American history. During its short lifespan, African Americans and women reportedly made up roughly 30% of the total WPA workforce.

Criticisms of the WPA

The WPA wasn’t loved by all. A common complaint among Roosevelt’s Republican rivals was that it was created to buy votes ahead of the 1936 reelection cycle and was simply an extension of the welfare check. In response to the latter accusation, Harry Hopkins, the first administrator of the WPA, hit back, saying, “Give a man a dole and you save his body and destroy his spirit. Give him a job and you save both body and spirit.”

The program’s cost management was also questioned. WPA construction projects could reportedly cost three to four times more than the private sector to complete, leading opponents to label them inefficient and a waste of taxpayer money. Spending on art projects in particular came under fire, with critics deeming them useless.

Another point of contention was wages. Labor unions protested that WPA employees earned much less than those working in the private sector, with average salaries reportedly totaling $41.57 a month.