I see your 42 million unemployed people in 1929 and raise you 100 million people not currently looking for work in 2017.
are "unemployed people" and "not currently looking for work" comparable measures, or where there man more people "not looking for work" in 1929? (most women, for example?)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unemployment_in_the_United_Sta... suggests that many of those 100million are relatively old or not interested in jobs even if jobs were on offer.