National Youth Administration (NYA), former U.S. government agency established in 1935 within the Works Progress Administration; it was transferred in 1939 to the Federal Security Agency and was placed in 1942 under the War Manpower Commission. Created in a period of widespread unemployment as part of the New Deal program of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the NYA at first engaged in obtaining part-time work for unemployed youths. As unemployment decreased and war approached, emphasis was gradually shifted to training youths for war work until, early in 1942, all NYA activities not contributing to the war effort were dropped. Its activities ceased late in 1943.
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