Can you really use stats comparing unemployment in the 1930s to that of today. The economies are totally different and tracking methods are vastly superior today.
It may indeed be dissimilar, but there are vulnerabilities we have today that people in the Thirties did not have. In the start of the Great Depression, we did not have a bloated Social Security system that was utterly dependent on wages to keep from total collapse. Fifteen percent unemployment today would cause the system to fail within a year.
We also had a greater proportion of our people near enough to agriculture to be able to grow at least some of their own food. Everybody had a relative who lived out in the country. Today, most urban and suburban people are unconnected with our agricultural past.
I'm sure there are other examples that FReepers can think of.
Yes, and no. Certainly, today's unemployment doesn't resemble that of the depression (yet, and I hope it doesn't get there). But on the other hand, the method of measurement of unemployment isn't the same either.