Unemployment in Nazi Germany

• Reich Labor Service (RAD)


  Measure introduced in 1935 to give work for 6 months to men aged 18-25 who were unemployed. They did public works like draining marshes, repairing roads, planting trees. Over 420,000 people were given jobs through the RAD.
• Job Creation Schemes


  Hitler spent large amounts of government money (18.4 billion marks in 1933, rising to 37.1 billion by 1938) to create jobs, such as building the autobahn motorway network which employed 125,000 men by 1935.
• Invisible Unemployment


  Hitler hid or masked the real level of unemployment by not counting certain groups like Jews, women, political opponents who had lost their jobs. Part-time workers were also counted as fully employed.
• Rearmament/Weapons


  Hitler massively increased spending on the military and weapons production, which created many new jobs. For example, employment in aircraft construction rose from 4,000 in 1933 to 72,000 by 1939.
• Unemployment did fall significantly in Germany from 1933-1939, with Hitler creating an estimated 4-5 million new jobs, compared to only 1 million in Britain.
• The measures taken by Hitler to reduce unemployment, while effective in the short-term, were not necessarily sustainable in the long-term and may have strained the German economy.
• While unemployment fell, it is debatable whether the standard of living and quality of life for German workers actually improved during this period.