Report: Stimulus Saves, Creates 22,500 Mich. Jobs

The federal government said Friday that recipients of federal stimulus money in Michigan so far have reported saving or creating about 22,500 jobs — the ninth most among the states.

The Obama administration, citing information from an independent federal board monitoring the program's progress, says more than 640,000 jobs have been saved or created nationwide through Sept. 30.

The job creation and retention aspects of the Recovery Act are of particular interest in Michigan, which has the nation's highest unemployment rate at 15.3 percent. Michigan's jobless rate is the highest it's been since early 1983.

Michigan has lost more than 300,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in the past year. Supporters say the losses would have been even steeper without the Recovery Act.

"It will certainly be substantial," Leslee Fritz, director of the Michigan Economic Recovery Office, said of the Recovery Act's ultimate effect on reviving the state's economy. "But it was not designed to do it by itself, and it certainly can't."

Fritz noted that the nation is only about eight months into an economic stimulus program that is designed to last for a little more than two years. Stimulus money should be spent more quickly over the next several months because much of the bureaucracy needed to distribute it has been established. That could leave Michigan able to meet the White House's estimates that 109,000 jobs will be saved or created in the state over a two-year period.

But critics say the $787 billion package adopted in February has done relatively little to stimulate the economy and create jobs.

"Michigan needs real stimulus, not the massive borrowing and spending measure adopted eight months ago and still failing to meet the challenge of creating new jobs to replace the millions already lost across the U.S," U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Howell, said in a statement.

Friday's jobs announcement includes more than 2,600 positions saved or created directly from stimulus cash sent straight to local governments, universities, businesses, nonprofits and others.