Increase in jobs due to Recovery Act

More jobs for the US

According to a new quarterly report unveiled by the White House, the Recovery Act implemented by President Obama created between 2.5 and 3.6 million jobs - more jobs than was predicted by the economic stimulus package.

The report also states that the stimulus may have expanded US growth by about three percent, just as a newly released Federal Reserve report revised down its forecast for US growth this year. It states that 2010 growth forecast was down by 0.2 percent, to a range of three percent to 3.5 percent.

The Federal Reserve report also stated that further measures may be needed to stimulate the economy if the US growth looked set to worsen. This month, it was reported that sales were down 0.5 percent, after a 1.1 percent fall the month before.

Employment growth

While national unemployment is still at a massive 10 percent, the job growth will be a bolster to the Obama administration. It has always been accepted that the stimulus package created jobs, there had just been a lot of dispute over the exact number.

Much of the Recovery Act money was put into unemployment and health benefits, and tax breaks to small businesses as well as funding public works projects.

In a statement to the press at the release of the report, Christina Romer, head of the White House Council of Economic Advisers said, "There's obviously a lot of uncertainty about any job estimate."

"I suspect the true effects of the act will not be fully analysed or fully appreciated for many years."

For the here and now however, the stimulus package appears to holding up the US economy and succeeding in being responsible for the growth of the economy in the wake of the global recession.

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President Obama "gets serious" about infrastructure | The cost of a crumbling infrastructure | Obama stimulus DID create jobs | US economy grows beyond expectations

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