Labor

The competing needs of industry and the military caused acute shortages of labor in all countries. Most young men were called into the armed forces, and their positions on farms and in factories and businesses had to be filled. Large numbers of women entered the labor force and were trained as skilled workers. In the United States, skilled positions also were opened to blacks for the first time. Most countries encouraged retired persons and children to work in factories and on farms. Germany used slave labor to keep its industry producing. Hundreds of thousands of political prisoners, prisoners of war, Jews, Gypsies, and others worked under terrible conditions in German factories and mines.