Farewell “Saved or Created”: Obama Administration Changes the Counting of Stimulus Jobs*
EmailThe Obama administration has taken some heat and mockery for using the nebulous and non-economic term of jobs being “saved or created” by the $787 billion stimulus program.
So it’s gotten rid of it.
In a little-noticed December 18, 2009 memo from Office of Management and Budget director Peter Orszag the Obama administration is changing the way stimulus jobs are counted.
The memo, first noted by ProPublica, says that those receiving stimulus funds no longer have to say whether a job has been saved or created.
“Instead, recipients will more easily and objectively report on jobs funded with Recovery Act dollars,” Orszag wrote.
In other words, if the project is being funded with stimulus dollars – even if the person worked at that company or organization before and will work the same place afterwards – that’s a stimulus job.
This change has not yet hit the Recovery.gov website, which lists 640,329 “Jobs Created/Saved as Reported by Recipients.”
Ed Pound, the spokesman for the Recovery Board — which is charge of Recovery.gov — tells ABC News “since OMB is not going to use ‘jobs created or jobs saved’ any more, we’re not going to use it either.” He said Recovery.gov will probably use something more like “jobs reported by recipients where Recovery funds were expended.”
Orszag’s memo also indicates the reporting of jobs will be less frequent; “recipients will now report job estimates on a quarterly, rather than cumulative, basis.”
OMB spokesman Tom Gavin said that after talking to funding recipients, good government groups, Democratic and Republican members of Congress and the Government Accountability Office, the administration decided to change its counting mechanism.
In its November report, titled “Recipient Reported Jobs Data Provide Some Insight into Use of Recovery Act Funding, but Data Quality and Reporting Issues Need Attention,” GAO specifically made recommendations as to how to change the counting procedures, saying the Obama administration should “consider being more explicit that ‘jobs created or retained’ are to be reported as hours worked and paid for with Recovery Act funds.”
“Instead of putting the GAO report on a shelf as is typically done we took the recommendations to heart,” Gavin told ABC News. “The changes are designed to make the definitions clearer, to simplify the process, and to increase the accuracy of the data that’s reported.”
But Rep. Darrell Issa of California, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, wrote to the chair of the Recovery Act Transparency and Accountability Board Earl Devaney saying that “the new guidance counts every jobs that is funded using stimulus money – even if it existed before the Recovery Act, and was not in any danger of being eliminated – as ‘created or saved.’ This definition ignores the plain meanings of the words ‘created’ and ‘saved’ and makes Recovery.gov’s ‘ ‘JOBS CREATED/SAVED’ label a falsehood, further eroding the confidence of the American people in their government.”
“It’s funny,” Gavin says. “A lot of the people who are being critical of this effort to simplify the process are the same people who three months ago were complaining the process was too complex.”
-jpt
* This post was updated with the response from the Recovery Board.
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Posted by: Culture of Corruption | January 11, 2010, 3:58 pm 3:58 pm
So, the process by which they claim to have saved/created jobs will not change, but, they are going to call it something different? Glad they fixed that!
Posted by: sybilll | January 11, 2010, 4:11 pm 4:11 pm
That is just the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Does this mean now that every GM, Chrysler, and AIG employee is officially a stimulus job?
Posted by: Tom | January 11, 2010, 4:13 pm 4:13 pm
Attention! Your attention, please! A newsflash has this moment arrived from the economic front. Our forces have won a glorious victory. I am authorized to say that the action we are now reporting may well bring the recession within measurable distance of its end. Here is the newsflash.
Posted by: Ministry of Truth | January 11, 2010, 4:15 pm 4:15 pm
“It’s funny,” Gavin says. “A lot of the people who are being critical of this effort to simplify the process are the same people who three months ago were complaining the process was too complex.”
=======
I don’t think complex vs.simple was the problem.
It was “accurate” vs. “misleading”.
I also love the way he has to make the little dig about GAO reports usually being shelved.
Posted by: MayBee | January 11, 2010, 4:19 pm 4:19 pm
..is Madoff really in the slammer, or is he secretly working for Orzag?
Posted by: cindy | January 11, 2010, 4:21 pm 4:21 pm
“In other words, if the project is being funded with stimulus dollars – even if the person worked at that company or organization before and will work the same place afterwards – that’s a stimulus job.”
Let’s see if I can follow this:
- Mayor pays his secretary $35,000/yr.
- Mayor uses Stimulus Money to pay his secretary this year.
- Mayor uses $35K saved to buy himself a new luxury car.
HOPE AND CHANGE, BABY!!!
Posted by: Orion | January 11, 2010, 4:32 pm 4:32 pm
While they’re at it why don’t they start counting all of the folks whose unemployment insurance ended and they can’t get a job.The number of jobless would be at 17% up from 10%.
Posted by: bobmac | January 11, 2010, 4:39 pm 4:39 pm
What is the unemployment rate in the areas with the fake zip codes. Maybe we could have a public information program about this (right after the health care debate) on Cspan?
Posted by: jamescbuilder | January 11, 2010, 4:41 pm 4:41 pm
“What is the unemployment rate in the areas with the fake zip codes.”
Hey, my dead Uncle Fed voted 89 times from that zip! My dog too.
Posted by: A. Corn | January 11, 2010, 4:43 pm 4:43 pm
HUSH now James! I live in a fake zip code and it’s all milk and honey. Full employment(or extended unemployment..whichever you prefer), 80 degrees under global warming skies, cash for jet skis, subsidies for rum runners, a stimulus check in every mailbox! It’s great out here..if you can find us!
Posted by: cindy | January 11, 2010, 4:56 pm 4:56 pm
I must admit I find it funny that OMB Spokesman Tom Gavin thinks it’s “funny” that the same folks that complained about the useless, complex number they used to report (“jobs saved or created”) are now complaining about their new, just as useless (but simpler) “Jobs Stimulated” number. Tom, we are called “thinking folks” and we can’t make heads or tails of either number, and the fact that you’ll report a useless number less frequently doesn’t really satisfy anyone – except maybe the folks that have to report the numbers, since they’ll only have to do it every three months, not every month.
I can’t wait until they further “improve” the stimulus numbers by adding second and third degree “stimulation” of jobs by including not only the folks whose jobs were stimulated, but also the places they spent their paychecks, and the the places those folks spent their paychecks, etc., etc. Why there’s no end to the stimulatin’ the Gov’t can do if they just broaden the definition just a little bit… ;^)
Posted by: n2vip | January 11, 2010, 4:56 pm 4:56 pm
Oh oh. I guess now we’ll need another another $18 million website.
Posted by: tommytubes | January 11, 2010, 4:58 pm 4:58 pm
“Oh oh. I guess now we’ll need another another $18 million website.”
Why not $36 or say $450 million? The sky is the limit. And the PRc will lend the money! And hopefully you live in Nebraska. That way you won’t have to pay for it!
Posted by: Nelson | January 11, 2010, 5:27 pm 5:27 pm
Posted by: cindy | Jan 11, 2010 5:22:26 PM
Great! We’ll get Napolitano for security and Geithner for economic policies! Success!
Posted by: Barry | January 11, 2010, 5:38 pm 5:38 pm
I wonder if all those people who stood in line in Detroit waiting for “Obama Bucks” counted on the jobs created column?
Posted by: david | January 11, 2010, 5:42 pm 5:42 pm
Barry..too late for Napolitano and geithner..we’ve already got the Selahis for security, Madoff for economic advisor, and balloon boy’s dad as press secretary…so…we’re set.
Posted by: cindy | January 11, 2010, 5:56 pm 5:56 pm
Posted by: cindy | Jan 11, 2010 5:56:42 PM
Cindy, Cindy…You’re forgetting job creation! Why not more than one person in each spot? The stimulus, remember? We should quadruple salaries as well.
Posted by: Barry | January 11, 2010, 6:12 pm 6:12 pm
If you don’t like the outcome, change the metric!
Another day, more lies, more hypocrisy.
Posted by: tjp612 | January 11, 2010, 6:27 pm 6:27 pm
haha! BARRY..you forget..we’re the land of the fake zip-code!!..we’re at full employment, the only ones unemployed are those who would rather not work and just collect extended un-employment! I’m telling ya, its all milk and honey! The stimulus checks we get every week are all pre-printed for various stuff. last week it was Outback steak house, the week before AVATAR tickets,. I hear this week, we got free whirlpool microwave coupons coming…
Posted by: cindy | January 11, 2010, 6:28 pm 6:28 pm
If you don’t like the outcome, change the metric!
Dude, settle down. With stuff in metric systems it’ll be neater! Just like Europe!
Posted by: Kilo | January 11, 2010, 6:35 pm 6:35 pm
so this means if 1 penny was used for a job, its a stimulus job that the admin gets to brag about?
Wow, great transparency there Obama team.
Posted by: David | January 11, 2010, 7:16 pm 7:16 pm
David..I think you are right! So surely then if even one penny of my money was used to save GM, then I can call at least one new car on their lot..mine; right?
Posted by: cindy | January 11, 2010, 7:51 pm 7:51 pm
“Crickets” from tierra on this one…
Must be over at the Ministry of Propaganda trading in the Red KoolAid for the Orange KoolAid.
Posted by: You Lie! | January 11, 2010, 8:15 pm 8:15 pm
To all the geniuses who voted for this clown, I say thank you for foisting a president on us so incompetent, he makes George Bush look like George Washington.
Posted by: Obama is Carter | January 11, 2010, 8:27 pm 8:27 pm
he makes George Bush look like George Washington.
___________________________________
When you stretch the truth this far, it diminishes the veracity of the rest of your post. President Obama makes George Bush look like VP Cheney’s pet poodle.
Posted by: tierra | January 11, 2010, 10:51 pm 10:51 pm
Why don’t Obama and Sheriff Biden just fast-forward and state that all government jobs, automotive jobs, construction jobs, windmill jobs, banking jobs, and lobbyist jobs were “saved or created” due to the ‘stimulus’?
Posted by: tjp612 | January 11, 2010, 11:18 pm 11:18 pm
Thanks for the post and for sharing the very resourceful info here, great post.
Posted by: Tag44 | January 12, 2010, 2:09 am 2:09 am
Hard to believe Orszag found time to come up with even this poorly framed load of baloney given the baby, old baby mama and new fiancee. Seriously, BHO needs an OMB spinmeister who is, um less distracted.
Posted by: ConservativeWoman | January 12, 2010, 12:36 pm 12:36 pm
Sen. Reid said “….. in the summer because of the heat and high humidity, you could literally smell the tourists coming into the Capitol. It may be descriptive but it’s true.”
Now Sen. Reid can add how the Obama administration will count “jobs saved or created” as something that also smells in the nation’s Capitol.
Posted by: Its all a Con | January 12, 2010, 4:49 pm 4:49 pm
I find it absolutely amazing how all of Obama’s critics on here have no idea what the article actually says, nor how to interpret what it means. I guess that serves to demonstrate the point that illiteracy is the CAUSE, not the EFFECT of being a conservative nutjob.
Posted by: Smart Guy | July 6, 2011, 9:07 am 9:07 am