Fig. [ ]. Source: Braddock Hickman
As indicated the graph in Fig. [ ], these payrolls started rising in January 1928, and then soared between November 1928 and October 1929 before falling by around 20% by the end of April 1930, even before the across-the-board economic collapse started in July. In contrast, the payrolls in the iron and steel industries neither grew, nor fell so rapidly (by around 10%) in the same period (by ), despite the fact (as we will show in more detail further in this paper) that these industries were also immediately affected in October 1929 by the crisis which was complicated by probably largely independently declining demand for automobiles.
However, [AN ARGUMENT ON WHY UTILITIES PROBABLY WEREN’T CRUCIAL AT LEAST IN THE INITIAL STAGE OF THE CRISIS]