The film is based on the trend-setting sociological research "The workers from Marienthal" in 1933. Marie Jahoda, Paul Lazarsfeld and Hans Zeisel had investigated the situation of unemployed in the village Marienthal in Lower Austria. After the closure of a textile factory many people were unemployed. The sociologists saw four types of unemployed: the first type is also mentally undaunted, the second have resigned, the third are desperate and the fourth desolate and apathetic.