The Nazis’ widely trumpeted success in the “battle against unemployment” ensured the approval of the general population and allowed the regime to establish itself domestically. In 1934 the Nazi government was already announcing that the number of unemployed had fallen to around three million. Two years later, it had fallen to about 1.5 million—or about the same number of unemployed recorded in 1928. In the armaments industry and agriculture, there was already a labor shortage.