 With the advent of the Great Depression , employment within the Rhondda Valleys continued to fall . This in turn led to a decline in public and social services , as people struggled to pay rates and rents . One of the outcomes of a lack of funds was a fall in health provisions , which in Rhondda lead to a lack of medical and nursing staff , a failure to provide adequate sewage works and a rise in deaths from tuberculosis . By 1932 the long @-@ term unemployment figure in the Rhondda was recorded at 63 % , and in Ferndale the unemployment figure for adult males rose as high as 72 @.@ 85 % . 
