A million jobs credited to stimulus plan

Source: Salt Lake Tribune

President Barack Obama's $787 billion economic recovery plan has created or saved roughly 1 million jobs since it was enacted in February, an administration economic official said.

Jared Bernstein, chief economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, cited private estimates and a preliminary government report that showed more than 30,380 jobs have been created directly from federal contracts awarded with stimulus finds. The result has been a "much needed lift in a very difficult period for our economy," Bernstein said in a statement.

While Bernstein said "early indications are quite positive," he cautioned against drawing broader conclusions from the data, which is based on just $16 billion of the $339 billion in stimulus funds that were distributed between Feb. 17 and Sept. 30. A more complete report that covers all the recipients of those funds will be released Oct. 30.



Read more: http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_13570332

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I'm a little confused about where the million number comes from, but it still sounds good.

they can cite any statistic they want, IMO.

indicated that most of the jobs were teachers jobs that were retained by the additional funding.

So it wasn't new jobs as much as reduction in job losses which hadn't materialized

Think about the kids at school who would have been impacted by all of those teacher lay-offs.

saved were in schools. As it is my HS freshman has class sizes 50% greater than the freshman did one year ago at the same school.

Stimulus bill helped states continue projects.

overly optimistic. There are forms that the vendors receive and there is no non positive option. I have heard interviews where the stimulus purchase had no effect on the status of the jobs for that company and the company indicated that on the form only to get phone call from the government requiring them to show a minimum of one job created or saved on the form.

From my experience the stimulus money that we have received is allowing me to reduce spending and that won't help our local vendors any...

I've witnessed many shovel ready projects that would not be in the progress without the stimulus money.

when you've got over 15 million jobless, some over 2 years, how is saving/creating a million jobs since February even remotely encouraging? Especially when, despite the precise, deceptive wording of the weekly job report, there are still over a half million people per week filing new UI claims? Last month, the BLS said we LOST over 260,000 jobs. This 1 million jobs since enactment of ARRA sounds bogus, and probably is. When I first became unemployed in 2007, there were maybe two sites for the unemployed to gather; now I've got 6 in my favorites UC file, and those are just the ones I've stumbled upon, without googling.

This is not the glass half full kind of optimism that is worth anything to those 15 million plus who are searching for jobs in an almost nil market that is overwhelmed with applicants who will accept ANY job if they can get it, especially in major metropolitan areas. Nationally, it is said that that for every one job, there are over 6 job seekers. In the less than handful of interviews I've gotten over the last two years, despite sending at least 50 resumes per week at 10 per week day, each time I meet an employer they say that they "had no idea" it was so bad out here until they listed their opening and received a stack of resumes over 6 inches thick--and then they show me the stack.

Excuse me, but I don't see 1 million jobs as even minutely proportionate to the vast numbers of people who are out of work, and perhaps will never be gainfully employed again, especially if they are too young to retire yet considered too old to hire because they are 45 to 60 years old.

The lack of a massive jobs program in the ARRA is a travesty that is going to come back to bite the Dems and the president in the butt. Especially as we get deeper into 2010, when the jobless numbers remain virtually unchanged.

it has nowhere near the amount needed to completely reverse the near total implosion of the economy.

That is the standard you're setting here.

A million jobs is a lot of damn jobs. Is it the instant savior of all of our problems? No, but there's no way it could be.