bogus job numbers

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* The Wall Street Journal

* NOVEMBER 2, 2009

Stimulus Created 640,000 Jobs, White House Says
Estimate Highlights Issue That Remains Politically Volatile

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By ELIZABETH WILLIAMSON and LOUISE RADNOFSKY
[Data Show 650,000 Stimulus Jobs] Associated Press

The jobs data reflect stimulus spending on projects such as highway repairs and funding for education.

WASHINGTON -- About 640,000 jobs have been created or saved by the $787 billion stimulus package, the White House said Friday, an estimate that didn't satisfy Republicans or ease worries about rising U.S. unemployment.

The relatively small size of the gain -- fewer than the number of jobs lost just in January -- was pointed out by Vice President Joe Biden, and highlights the politically volatile issue of jobs, despite signs the U.S. economy is growing again.



The larger issue for the Obama administration is that far more people have lost jobs than have become employed through even the most expansive estimates of stimulus job creation. The government estimates that 10 million Americans have been laid off since the start of the recession. Some 15 million are now out of work, despite the third-quarter rebound in gross domestic product reported this week.

Republicans called the job numbers "bogus," and said they failed to address criticism the program was adding too few jobs at too great a cost.

"The trillion dollar 'stimulus' isn't working, and no amount of phony statistics can change that," House Republican Leader John Boehner said in a statement.

Consultant Jim Robins, shown Oct. 8 at a project partially funded with federal stimulus money. A culvert in Corralitos, Calif., will be replaced with a bridge to make a creek more viable for spawning steelhead trout.

Mr. Boehner circulated a memo Friday from Carnegie Mellon University economist Allan Meltzer that said, "One can search economic textbooks forever without finding a concept called 'jobs saved.' It doesn't exist for good reason: how can anyone know that his or her job has been saved?"

Some companies also appear to have included temporary workers who had jobs for only days or weeks.

Write to Elizabeth Williamson at elizabeth.williamson@wsj.com and Louise Radnofsky at louise.radnofsky@dowjones.com