Restate idiom in your own words after the stock market crash of 1929 his newspaper had laid off most of the report is four years ago and still had only a Skeleton Crew He was glad to have a job but he was overworked and underpaid

After the stock market crash of 1929, his newspaper had laid off most of the reporters. Is four years ago and still had  only the minimum staff to keep it running at the minimum level. He wass gladd to have a job but he was overworked and underpaid

Explanation:

The text from which you have to restate the idiom is:

"After the stock market crash of 1929, his newspaper had laid off most of the reporters. Is four years ago and still had only a skeleton crew. He was glad to have a job but he was overworked and underpaid"

The idiom in that passage is "skeleton crew". Thus, skeleton crew cannot be taken literally. It is an expression used to mean something particular, which cannot be interprested from the meaning of each separated word.

The expression is used to tell that a business has just the minimum number of employees, barely enough to keep it open, at a basic level.

Thus, you can change the idiom and restate the text in this form:

After the stock market crash of 1929, his newspaper had laid off most of the reporters. Is four years ago and still had  only the minimum staff to keep it running at the minimum level. He wass gladd to have a job but he was overworked and underpaid