CBO: Stimulus Added Up To 3.3 Million Jobs

[Sundial]

The economy would have been in much worse shape without the 2009 stimulus — which increased employment in the third quarter of this year by as many as 3.3 million full-time jobs, according to a report by the Congressional Budget Office.

Republican lawmakers and presidential candidates have blasted the $800 billion pumped into the economy through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act as a waste of taxpayer dollars that failed to put people back to work.

The nonpartisan CBO figures offer a more nuanced picture of how government spending impacted an economy still coping with unemployment above 9 percent. It provides an alternative glimpse of an economy with even higher unemployment and drastically lower growth.

The CBO figures released Tuesday estimate that the stimulus package raised the gross domestic product this past quarter by 0.3 percent-1.9 percent.

The CBO report provided a broad range of the estimated number of full-time jobs created because of the stimulus — from a low of 500,000 to a high of 3.3 million jobs.

Previous estimates indicated that the stimulus funded more than 400,000 full-time jobs in the third quarter, but the CBO said in its report that the figure was not a “comprehensive” look at the law’s impact.

The effects of the stimulus are fading after having peaked in the first half of 2010, the report noted.

However, the CBO estimates that the stimulus will raise GDP by 0.1 percent to 0.8 percent next year and employment by 200,000 to 1.1 million jobs.

500k - 3.3 million seems like an awful wide range to me. It sounds like they may not be all that confident about what they're doing.
CBO: Stimulus added up to 3.3M jobs - Josh Boak - POLITICO.com

 

[likeabird03]

Obviously micromanaging an economy is beyond the governments skill-set if they don't even have a clue about what effects their efforts have.

 

[Conservative]

The CBO report provided a broad range of the estimated number of full-time jobs created because of the stimulus — from a low of 500,000 to a high of 3.3 million jobs.

that's a hell of a range. That's like asking your girlfriend how many guys she slept with before you, and having her say 'between 3 and 274'.

 

[Teals_Of_Wonder]

you have to figure in at least a million new jobs in the prostitution field. what else could women do after losing their jobs in AGI, Lehman, and other financial institutions that collapsed thanks to the Obama Recession?

 

[ladyliberal]

There's another thread based on this report, with a much different premise:

http://www.usmessageboard.com/politics/195501-cbo-stimulus-a-net-drag-on-the-economy.html

Naturally, I think Politico's take on the article is much more balanced than that of the Washington Times, but the report itself is fairly easy to skim if one wants to go straight to the source.

The ranges are very broad. Macroeconomics is an incredibly inexact science, with many simple, fundamental questions (eg, "What would be the Keynesian multiplier of X?") lacking precise answers. The uncertainties are probably even somewhat broader than the CBO claims, since their model is simplified and experts tend to overestimate the precision of their conclusions. In fact, this report revises old numbers which claimed a smaller uncertainty in some values.

 

[auditor0007]

you have to figure in at least a million new jobs in the prostitution field. what else could women do after losing their jobs in AGI, Lehman, and other financial institutions that collapsed thanks to the Obama Recession?

God are you a tool.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

The economy would have been in much worse shape without the 2009 stimulus — which increased employment in the third quarter of this year by as many as 3.3 million full-time jobs, according to a report by the Congressional Budget Office.

Republican lawmakers and presidential candidates have blasted the $800 billion pumped into the economy through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act as a waste of taxpayer dollars that failed to put people back to work.

The nonpartisan CBO figures offer a more nuanced picture of how government spending impacted an economy still coping with unemployment above 9 percent. It provides an alternative glimpse of an economy with even higher unemployment and drastically lower growth.

The CBO figures released Tuesday estimate that the stimulus package raised the gross domestic product this past quarter by 0.3 percent-1.9 percent.

The CBO report provided a broad range of the estimated number of full-time jobs created because of the stimulus — from a low of 500,000 to a high of 3.3 million jobs.

Previous estimates indicated that the stimulus funded more than 400,000 full-time jobs in the third quarter, but the CBO said in its report that the figure was not a “comprehensive” look at the law’s impact.

The effects of the stimulus are fading after having peaked in the first half of 2010, the report noted.

However, the CBO estimates that the stimulus will raise GDP by 0.1 percent to 0.8 percent next year and employment by 200,000 to 1.1 million jobs.

500k - 3.3 million seems like an awful wide range to me. It sounds like they may not be all that confident about what they're doing.
CBO: Stimulus added up to 3.3M jobs - Josh Boak - POLITICO.com

Except even with these ridiculous ranges the report CLEARLY states that the CURRENT estimate is 200k to 1.1 million. So much for honest headlines.

 

[likeabird03]

The thing is - even if it created 1.1 million jobs, that's about $700,000.00 per job. Doesn't seem like a very good deal to me.