Besides the free food, clothing and shelter given to these men which would help them live comfortably, this relief effort most importantly helped provide a source of income for these employed men as well as their family back home. 250 000 young Americans had served in the CC by August 1933 and by 1938 2 million men had served in the CCC. Thus this relief effort helped provide jobs for the unemployed, easing the unemployment problem, proving the success of the New Deal.
However, the New Deal was unsuccessful in recovering the economy of America in other areas. The National Recovery Administration (NRA) created in 1933, a subset of the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), did not manage to meet its goal of restoring the economy back in high gear, and ended up upsetting both the employers and employees instead. The Great Depression caused a decline in demands for manufactured goods and a drop in profits gained. Many people were fired to lessen the impact of reduced income, and if not, their wages were cut severely and they had longer working hours. To improve this situation, the NRA attempted to assuage employers' fears of losing profits and better the working conditions of workers at the same time. Factory owners were encouraged to sign codes that required them to fix reasonable prices for factory-produced goods, and also to maintain a minimum standard of working conditions and wages for employees. The policy, however, failed to consider the response of business owners towards such an act. Henry Ford, for example, was one of the employers who refused to sign the codes as he wanted to maintain control over his workers and did not want them to organise trade unions that conspired against him. Of those who signed the codes, a number simply ignored the sections they disagreed with. When workers found out, many lost the hope they had placed in the NRA and went back to striking against their employers, which defeated the point of setting up the NRA in the first place.