Nazi policies to reduce unemployment

• In 1933, the Labour Service (RAD) was set up to provide work for the unemployed.
• They repaired roads, planted trees, and drained marshes but also did military parades and drill in uniform.
• Pay was low but the RAD was compulsory by 1935, with 422,000 members.
• Another measure were public works schemes: building autobahns (motorways), bridges and other buildings. By 1935, 125,000 workers were building autobahns and, by 1938 3,500 of the planned 7000 km had been completed, speeding up communications and boosting the construction industry
• Hitler reintroduced military conscription, and by 1939 there were 1.36 million men in the armed forces, including 900,000 in the army.
• Spending on the armaments (weapons) industry rose from 3.5 billion marks in 1933 to 26 billion by 1939, creating jobs in factories and distribution
• By 1935, 72,000 worked in aircraft construction alone, compared to 4,000 two years earlier.
• Unemployment was reduced artificially by ‘invisible unemployment’. This meant categories such as women, Jews, those in concentration camps and those in the Labour Service were not counted as unemployed, while part-time work was counted as full time. These measures took 1.5 million out of the unemployment figures.