"Stimulus" Fuzzy Math of the Day: Job Numbers Wanted, No Accuracy Necessary

Tuesday, November 10, 2009 4:54 PM by Mattie Duppler

Recovery.org credits the “stimulus” with saving or creating 8,094 full-time jobs in Colorado, making the state the leader in “stimulus” job creation. That estimate, however, is no where close to the actual number of jobs affected by recovery cash. Thanks to the federal reporting system’s inability to differentiate between full-time and other types of employment, the impact of the “stimulus” on Centennial State jobs has been vastly exaggerated. The Denver Post reports:

• The city of Westminster reported that its $150,438 contract for road work on Lowell Boulevard would create 117 jobs. That would equate to $1,286 per job. The city said the estimate is based on anyone who will work on the project, even if it was for only one day. No federal officials told the city to convert to the number of full-time-equivalent slots, an official said.

• Two child-development centers — one in Colorado Springs and the other in Saguache County — reported they had created or saved more than 292 jobs combined. However, the money — totaling about $650,000, or $2,226 a job — was used to give employees cost- of-living raises. Only three new jobs were created.

• Some subsidized-housing projects listed their entire staffs as jobs retained as a result of stimulus spending even if the money was the same rental assistance for their tenants they had received in previous years. Combined, they could total as many as 200 jobs.

In some cases, the federal reporting restraints have given companies no choice but to report false numbers  – TeleTech, a Colorado-based company, was only allowed to file one report and thus initially boasted 4,231 new jobs in Colorado when in fact it hired closer to 600 and even then those numbers referred to its national impact; the company actually hired just 34 employees in the Centennial State. That’s quite the discrepancy, one that will, no doubt, be replicated in countless companies to come as the federal government proves unwilling to collect accurate data on its “stimulus” program. Much like Speaker Pelosi’s attempts to undermine transparency in the legislative process, this just begs the question – if the “stimulus” is such a colossal success, what does the Administration have to hide?

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