Obama stimulus created 650,000 jobs

Has the stimulus aided job growth?

The White House has announced that more than 650,000 jobs have been saved or created under President Obama's economic stimulus plan, and has said it is on track to create 3.5 million jobs by the end of next year.

According to the Associated Press, the figures from businesses, contractors, state and local governments, nonprofit groups and universities were not scheduled to be released publicly until Friday afternoon, but officials had been told the job numbers.

White House economic adviser Jared Bernstein said that when adding in jobs linked to $288 billion in tax cuts, the stimulus plan has actually created or saved more than a 1 million jobs.

"It's a great example of the unprecedented transparency, where the American taxpayer can point and click and see their taxes creating jobs," Bernstein said.

Recovery plans

Government recovery plans such as these have been credited with lifting the United States out of the recession and placing it on the road to recovery. Stimulus plans such as the $787 billion stimulus to cash and tax incentives for buying new homes and cars have seen the economy grow, after a level of depression that hasn't been since the 1930s.

Despite the growth, it has been the job market that hasn't fully shown signs of recovery. The unemployment rate is currently 9.8 percent but private and government estimates expect the unemployment rate to average 10 percent or higher in 2010 despite the economy growth. Whilst his administration may be praising the new report, President Obama has downplayed it, saying the economy still has "a long way to go".

Whilst the new report may bolster spirits, a growth rate of between 2 and 3 percent will not necessarily create a strong enough expansion to see widespread decline in the unemployment rate.

According to The Hill.com, Christina Romer, chairwoman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers stated that the economy would need to " get 4-5 percent GDP growth to get the kind of really radical decline in the unemployment rate that we all want to see."

When it is fully released on Friday, the new report will be the largest and most complete look at how the stimulus has been spent so far. The White House has promised the data will be far more reliable than the first batch of numbers on federal contracts, which the administration initially embraced, then branded a "test run" after thousands of errors were discovered.

The data will be posted on recovery.gov, the web site of the independent panel overseeing stimulus spending.

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