Stimulus saved, created 650,000 jobs, gov't claims

The Associated Press: Stimulus saved, created 650,000 jobs, gov't claims

Stimulus saved, created 650,000 jobs, gov't claims
By MATT APUZZO and BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE – 55 minutes ago
WASHINGTON — Nearly 650,000 jobs have been saved or created under President Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan, the government said Friday, and the White House declared the nation on track to meet the president's goal of 3.5 million by the end of next year.
New job numbers from businesses, contractors, state and local governments, nonprofit groups and universities were released, showing 640,329 positions credited to the stimulus, according to the independent federal board monitoring the program's progress.
Teachers and other education employees represent the largest number of jobs in the report — about 325,000. With state budgets in crisis, federal aid helped governors avoid major cuts in education, which officials said spared many teachers and school workers from the unemployment line.
But Republican Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, voicing the skepticism of many critics, has warned about putting too much stock in claims that the stimulus saved that many jobs. Chris Johnston, who oversees Indiana's stimulus spending for Daniels, said Friday the state reported under the stimulus requirements that 13,000 teaching jobs were created or saved. But he's not sure whether any of those people actually would have been laid off.
"I think that's a hypothetical. I'm not sure we can say one way or another," Johnston said.
Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell said "it's bewildering" to see the Obama administration's job-creation claims when 3 million jobs have been lost since Congress approved the program.
The new stimulus report follows the administration's admission that earlier counts of jobs credited to the stimulus were faulty. A review by the Associated Press found the government's early report overstated thousands of jobs saved or created.
Despite White House promises that errors would be corrected, the latest stimulus job count still includes mistakes such as the ones discovered in the AP's earlier sampling of contracts.
For example, the Palm Beach County, Fla., water department reported 57 meter readers, customer service representatives and other positions as part of two water projects. That got incorrectly doubled to 114.
Some agencies that received stimulus money continue to report saving jobs, despite using the money for employee pay raises.
And the new data appeared to include at least dozens of entries in which contractors listed the same number of jobs as created or saved on different projects, which suggested double- or triple-counting of the same workers used on all projects.
It could take some time for the public to verify the White House's claims, with more than 155,000 records dumped late Friday on the recovery.gov Website, the government's official accounting of stimulus activity.
But Vice President Joe Biden defended Friday's report, saying it shows the recovery plan "is operating as advertised" and on target to reach Obama's goal.
"We're starting to make real progress on the road to recovery," Biden said.
White House economic adviser Jared Bernstein said the figures show that, when adding in jobs linked to $288 billion in tax cuts, the stimulus has created or saved more than 1 million jobs.
The new data released late Friday represents 156,614 federal contracts, grants and loans awarded to more than 62,000 recipients worth a total of $215 billion. The largest numbers of jobs were created or saved by state governments. California received nearly twice as many stimulus contracts, grants and loans — $26.9 billion — as any other state, followed by New York with $14.5 billion and Texas with $13 billion.
Among the largest non-government creators or saviors of jobs were construction company Shelco Inc. of Raleigh, N.C., with 836 jobs; and nuclear-waste cleanup firm Savannah River Nuclear Solutions LLC of Aiken, S.C., with 800 jobs.
Teletech Government Solutions of Englewood, Colo., which staffed call centers for the digital TV transition, was among the largest non-government job creators in Friday's report. The AP's review found the company previously had claimed more than 4,200 jobs but most of those were temporary. It has corrected the job count to 635 to reflect the equivalent of full-time employees in the newly released data.
Government recovery plans — everything from the $787 billion stimulus to tax credits for buying new homes to government deals on new cars — are credited with helping the economy grow again after a long and deep recession.
But the job market has yet to show signs of recovery, putting pressure on the White House to show that the stimulus was worth its hefty price. The economy has shed millions of jobs since Obama signed the stimulus in February, giving Republicans ammunition to say the government is spending too much for too little effect.
The White House said the latest report bolstered its case that the recession would have been far worse without the stimulus — a package of government spending, tax cuts, state aide and social programs.
The numbers released Friday have limitations, since calculating "jobs saved" will always produce an inexact estimate, and collecting data from so many sources is certain to produce errors.
Bernstein said there's not a huge distinction between jobs "saved" and jobs "created" by the stimulus money. Either way, he said, "it's an unemployed person avoided."

So let me get this right. According to my calculations, we spent $335,764.96 per job. Govt efficiency at its best!
I love how they consider tax cuts as spending money. I haven't seen any of these tax cuts, but I guess somehow cash for clunkers made some jobs!

Never mind they only benefited 0.21% of America and unemployment has climbed to 9.5%.

I love President Obama. giving us real value for our debt










okay, no i don't

This is just BS

Pure BS.

I wonder if our schools will begin teaching this new math.

Allow me to opine, again, that this money is going to pay bhos election debt, as is a great portion of the legislation, appointments, contracts, etc. pushed through by him and his congress along with the lap dog media.

Originally Posted by Ghostrider

Allow me to opine, again, that this money is going to pay bhos election debt, as is a great portion of the legislation, appointments, contracts, etc. pushed through by him and his congress along with the lap dog media.

The same would be true regardless of who is POTUS.

Looks like most of the media is calling horse ***** on this one...


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CBS Says White House Is Fudging Stimulus Jobs Numbers
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Biden: Job Stats "Not 100 Percent Accurate"
RealClearPolitics - Video - Biden: Job Stats "Not 100 Percent Accurate"

Phantom Jobs
Investors.com - Phantom Jobs

White House goes after ABC News over $160,000 per job stimulus claim
$160,000 Per Stimulus Job? White House Calls That 'Calculator Abuse' - Political Punch

Didn't do crap for me...

Luckily, I took it upon myself to invest in a company that dismantles bank signs... They're doing very well.

Actually, there is zero way of knowing how many, or how few, jobs were saved.

Did it save jobs? Yes. Was it worth it? Hmm. Too soon to tell.

Lets see, it was an idea created by Paulson (last administration) and Bernake (present admin) and pushed through with the idea of stalling the recession, or at least going into a depression... (Amazing how two NON-elected bureaucrats have so much power.)

Well, did it prevent a depression? Depends - GDP grew? Yes. Stock market up? Yes. Employment did not hit the deep % predicted? Yes.
HOWEVER - Consumer spending fell. Employment is still at 10%+/- (really more like 15%+ the figures always under report)
So, Yes and No. Again, too soon to tell...
Did government need to intervene? Sigh. IF it had NOT and the Economy TANKED FURTHER - a lot would blame the government.
Yet, the government intervened and a lot still complain.

So - d@mned if you do, d@mned if you don't.

Would the economy fix itself? Probably, but not as fast as any of us wish.

Still tired of the people looking towards gov't to fix their ills... But, that is what, effectively gov't was created to do... Now we just need to limit the ills the gov't should focus on, so it does not get too big.

But hey, I still cannot park in the grass in my yard, or I'll get fined by the gov't... So, I think we, as a country, have gone too far in asking Gov't to fix our ills...