Administration alters stimulus job counting formula (existing jobs saved w/stimulus to be counted)

[The Straight Story]

Administration alters stimulus job counting formula


Any existing job funded with stimulus money now will be counted as a job saved, whether it was endangered or not, according to new guidance issued on Dec. 18 by Office of Management and Budget Director Peter R. Orszag.

The memo aims to simplify the original formula that the government required Recovery Act recipients to use to determine whether a job was saved by stimulus funds. The new guidance, however, also will make it more difficult for the public to determine exactly how many jobs the Recovery Act has preserved.

Until now, the Obama administration had asked stimulus recipients to determine how many jobs were saved by the stimulus. The requirement caused confusion among some recipients and a number of embarrassing reporting mistakes.


But the memo clarifies that policy, defining a job retained as any existing position funded by the Recovery Act during the previous reporting quarter. Jobs funded partially with stimulus funds will be counted based on the proportion funded by the Recovery Act.

Stimulus watchdogs applauded the change but noted that it likely will result in some jobs being attributed to the Recovery Act that were not endangered.

"The tricky part is deciding whether a job would be lost or not," said Craig Jennings, senior federal fiscal policy analyst for the watchdog group OMB Watch. "It's impossible to know the alternate universe in which an employer did not receive Recovery Act funds."

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