<P> The Depression's damage to large cities, suburbs, towns and rural areas varied according to the economic base . Most serious in larger cities was the collapse of the construction industry with new starts falling to less than 10% of the norm of the late 1920s . Although much needed work was deferred, maintenance and repair of existing structures comprised over a third of the private sector construction budget in the 1930s . Devastating was the disappearance of 2 million high paying jobs in the construction trades, plus the loss of profits and rents that humbled many thousands of landlords and real estate investors . </P> <P> Second came the general downturn in industry, especially heavy manufacturing . Steel in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Gary, Indiana, and automobiles in Detroit took the heaviest hits, along with railroads and coal mining . In these sectors, the largest cities suffered somewhat less than smaller mill towns, mining camps and railroad centers . Unemployment was a problem everywhere, but it was less severe among women than men, among workers in non-durable industries (such as food and clothing), in services and sales, and in government jobs . A sharp educational gradient meant that the less skilled inner city men had much higher unemployment rates than the high - school and college educated men who lived in outer zones and suburbs . </P> <P> Although suburbia stopped growing, it did not suffer nearly as much as the central cities . While some unemployed came to the cities looking for relief, it appears that even larger numbers of unemployed returned to family farms . For the first time ever, the movement of native population was away from cities and toward rural America . </P> <P> The fiscal soundness of city and county governments was challenged by the rise in relief expenditures and the sharp fall in tax collections . The Hoover Administration had encouraged state and local governments to expand public works projects, which they did in 1930 and 1931 . While this expansion may have slowed the rise in unemployment, the spending was a luxury that could not be borne in the face of falling tax revenues and the unwillingness of investors to put more money into municipal bonds . After 1933, new sales taxes and infusions of federal money helped relieve the fiscal distress . </P>

How were other areas of the world impacted by the great depression