Job creation

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The term “ job creation” is understood to mean state investments , which are mainly made during periods of mass unemployment in order to bring the unemployed back into employment (temporarily or permanently) and to “stimulate” the economy. Typical fields in which job creation was realized during the Great Depression were construction activities in the transport sector (e.g. roads), electrification measures in rural areas ( Tennessee Valley Authority ) and other investments in infrastructure . As a rule, job creation is seen as a task for the public sector (state or municipalities).

Job creation is controversial, its efficiency is doubted.

In contrast to this, a job creation measure is understood to mean state-subsidized activities.

history

Job creation was required in almost every modern economic crisis and in some cases it was also carried out.

Germany and Austria

Especially under the influence of the trade unions, there was a late rethink among the left ( WTB plan by Wladimir Woytinsky , Fritz Tarnow , Fritz Baade ), but this had no consequences. Germany was the industrial nation hardest hit by the global economic crisis. The massive propaganda of the political right for job creation ( Gottfried Feder etc.) made a decisive contribution to the doubling of the votes and mandates of the NSDAP in the Reichstag election on July 31, 1932 . The von Papen government , known as the "Cabinet of the Barons," was a minority government; she only ruled with emergency decrees . She started a modest job creation program; the unemployment figures fell somewhat during this time.

Soon after the “ seizure of power ” (January 1933; a third of the working population was unemployed; almost half of the industrial production capacity was underutilized) the Hitler government started the so-called Reinhardt program . Full employment was thus achieved after three years. The economic policy of the Third Reich was and is the subject of research by historians, economic historians and economists. It is controversial which AB projects served more civilian purposes and which more military ones.

The increase in employment between 1933 and 1939 resulted primarily from massive armament by the Wehrmacht and other preparatory measures for a large-scale war of conquest (Hitler spoke of “the German people being re-arrested”). It is questionable whether the construction of the Reichsautobahn was mainly used for military, economic or propaganda purposes. In addition, rivers and streams were straightened , moors drained and much more.

Job creation was hardly discussed any more during the decades of reconstruction and the associated boom (“ economic miracle ”). After the first oil crisis (1973) and the second oil crisis (1979–1980) it was discussed and partially practiced in many countries. In the 1970s and 1980s, some industrialized countries were in stagflation (for example, France and Japan - see Economics of France and Economics of Japan ); also urged baby boomers on the labor market. Some job creation measures aimed to reduce youth unemployment or to give school leavers their first work experience.

Other well-known job creation projects:

See also

literature

  • Gottfried Bombach et alii: The Keynesianism. 6 volumes, Berlin etc. from 1976: especially volume 2: The employment policy discussion before Keynes in Germany - documents and comments. Berlin / Heidelberg 1976, as well as Volume 3: The discussion of money and employment theory in Germany at the time of Keynes - documents and analyzes. Berlin / Heidelberg 1981
  • Charles Bettelheim: L'Economie allemande sous le Nazisme. Paris 1979 (first edition 1945).
  • PK Conkin: The New Deal. London 1968.
  • John Maynard Keynes: The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. Cambridge University Press, London 1936.
  • Emile Thomas: Histoire des ateliers nationaux. Paris 1848.
  • Detlev Humann: "Labor battle". Job creation and propaganda in the Nazi era 1933–1939. Wallstein, Göttingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8353-0838-1 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In 1930 Brüning wanted to set up a job creation program worth 1 billion Reichsmarks; however, he did not succeed in raising the necessary money, see page 7 (PDF; 483 kB)
  2. Whether this was due to the program was and is - as with all such programs - unclear.
  3. See André Bastisch: Job creation measures in the Third Reich from 1933–1936. 2000 (Master's thesis, TU Dresden)