Patterico's Pontifications

10/12/2009

Study Leak: Stimulus Saved Government Jobs

Filed under: Economics,Government,Obama — DRJ @ 5:48 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

State officials are working to calculate the effect of Washington’s $787 billion recovery package in an effort to meet a national government reporting deadline. The AP says early reports show the stimulus saved government jobs, especially teaching jobs:

“The national data won’t be available until later this month. But based on preliminary information obtained by The Associated Press from a handful of states, teachers appear to have benefited most from early spending. That’s because the stimulus sent billions of dollars to help stabilize state budgets, sparing what officials said would have teacher layoffs.

In California, the stimulus was credited with saving or creating 62,000 jobs in public schools and state universities. Utah reported saving about 2,600 teaching jobs. In both states, education jobs represented about two-thirds of the total stimulus job number. Missouri reported more than 8,500 school jobs, Minnesota more than 5,900. In Michigan, where officials said 19,500 jobs have been saved or created, three out of four were in education.”

Billions of dollars in highway funds also spurred road and highway construction jobs, although the status of these projects is unclear and the job gains may be temporary.

Thus, most of the jobs saved may be in state and local government, particularly in education. America needs teachers but those are government-created service jobs, not wealth-creating jobs. The Obama Administration wants us to believe all jobs are created equal but they aren’t. Education is important but education by itself does not create wealth. America needs wealth-creating jobs, and fast.

— DRJ

17 Responses to “Study Leak: Stimulus Saved Government Jobs”

  1. You need to provide a summary of the “wealth-creating jobs” link. How can you hang your argument on a rambling and boring link?

    JerryT (9df7f3)

  2. Well, Obama did claim that the Porkulus bill did save jobs. They are the jobs favored by his union cronies at the NEA. Unfortunately they aren’t the jobs that the economy needs to rebuild in the short term.

    SomeOtherSteve (238ed0)

  3. JerryT,

    Here’s one semi-short point from the link (page 3):

    “The administration is urging more Americans to get college degrees so they can participate in the high end of the service economy pay scale – but this idea defies common sense. As the BLS said, “an increasing share of jobs was in high-paying jobs and required college training; but most jobs that were filled paid below-average wages and did not require a college education.” They are stating the obvious. There is a finite need for doctors, lawyers and professors.

    People interact with college professors for four or five years out of their lives, if at all. They spend a few hours a year with doctors, and a good year is one in which they do not talk to a lawyer at all. There is no need for a greater proportion of the workforce to go into these professions. The growth without manufacturing will continue to be in low paying food service, hotel and janitorial jobs – but they will be filled with people who have to repay college loans from their food service paychecks.”

    DRJ (7fbae6)

  4. If you can’t tell the difference between a wealth creating job and a non-wealth creating job…congratulations, you have been successfully indoctrinated by the current American educational system. Don’t need no stinkin’ list.

    political agnostic (489580)

  5. Stimulus Saved Government Jobs

    Well of course it did. Whose jobs did we expect it to save? Those of the rabble?

    RB (529753)

  6. DRJ: Thanks for the excellent link.

    JerryT: You need to provide a summary of
    your comment. How can you hang your
    criticism of the content of the link on
    a rambling and boring comment?

    gnholb (710dbc)

  7. You need to provide a summary of the “wealth-creating jobs” link. How can you hang your argument on a rambling and boring link?

    The hostess is not your monkey, Jerry. Show a little more respect next time, and do your own work for a change.

    Dmac (5ddc52)

  8. with Ear Leader looking to increase taxes, regulations and requirements for mandatory health insurance, et al, why would anyone try to start a business that would have wealth creating positions?

    better to invest overseas, and never let the money get to where the IRS can tap it.

    what recovery?

    redc1c4 (fb8750)

  9. “The administration is urging more Americans to get college degrees so they can participate in the high end of the service economy pay scale – but this idea defies common sense. As the BLS said, “an increasing share of jobs was in high-paying jobs and required college training; but most jobs that were filled paid below-average wages and did not require a college education.” They are stating the obvious. There is a finite need for doctors, lawyers and professors.

    This is interesting in light of the UC Regents proposal to add a surcharge to certain majors, specifically engineering and business, which are jobs that typically ensure a job upon graduation and generate a high income. So there is need for these higher paying jobs and yet the very people wiling to undertake the education required for said jobs are being penalized for their decision. And these are not teaching jobs nor government jobs that could be created.

    Revenue-hungry UC officials say the two fields were chosen because salaries for their faculty members are significantly higher than the rest and because students majoring in those subjects tend to land well-paid jobs after graduation.

    Dana (863a65)

  10. Dana,
    Making profits is evil. Those who selfishly choose a career that pays well must be punished.

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407)

  11. America has lost almost 3 million jobs since the democrats passed their 800 billion dollar “Pay for play” bill.

    Seems to me we would have come out a lot cheaper just giving everyone of these employees 2 years pay instead of spending 1.3 trillion tax dollars(stimulus bill with interest).

    These pathetic results after Obama promised this:

    That is why I have moved quickly to work with my economic team and leaders of both parties on an American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan that will immediately jumpstart job creation and long-term growth. …

    Barack Obama
    Jan. 8, 2009

    This bogus idea of “jobs saved” has moved the goal posts for identifying success clear out of the stadium.
    Even the AP declares there is no sure way to measure this or be able to say with certainty that these jobs would have been lost without the stimulus.

    Unemployment has skyrocketed past Obama’s own administrations calculations that showed it reaching only 9% if we had done nothing.

    This is nothing but talking points and spin to be put out for the press and liberal groups to repeat over and over and over in hopes that enough people will buy this cut and paste bullsh!t.


    OBAMA: I SAVED THE ECONOMY!!!!!!!!

    This new barometer of success by liberals is great since there is no measurable way to determine what “could have happened”.

    In other news:

    Ex-Detroit Lions head football coach Marinelli declared his 0-16 season a success stating “if they had not hired me,they would have been 0-16 several seasons in a row”.


    I know Detroit fans are a lot happier now.

    President Bush declares ” My tax cuts created and saved over 50 million jobs.”


    See how this works,it’s great.
    Bush can claim all kinds of success now that actual measurable results don’t matter.

    President Bush declares ” I saved the world by taking Saddam out,thus preventing all out war in the middle east.”


    That’s right,if Bush had not intervened to take out a madman that had started war after war and killed hundreds of thousands with WMD’s,all out war would have engulfed the mideast,spreading to all lands that have significant Muslim populations.


    According to the liberals new determination of success and accomplishment, Bush can now claim just about anything because proving it could “not” have happened is impossible.


    The UN declares success in dealing with the Rwandan and Darfur genocides:

    “If we had not passed those resolutions and had so many “Save Darfur” bumber stickers made,millions more would have died.”


    Now I understand why liberals love the UN so much.It is not the fact that they accomplish nothing,stop no genocide or wars,and their sanctions and condemnations accomplish nothing.
    It’s what the UN “Prevents from happening” that is so impressive.



    I know the people in Iran,the genocide victims in Darfur,Rwanda,and Iraq all feel so much better knowing what the UN “Prevented from happening.”


    Neville Chamerlain declared his negotiations with Hitler a success according to documents found in the leaders archives.

    “If I had not appeased Hitler when I did,many more millions would have died.”


    And all this time I thought that appeasing Hitler only strengthened his resolve and brought on war.


    We didn’t need Chruchill and FDR after all.

    It is going to be hilarious watching the Obama administration and their lapdogs in the press peddle this idiotic,unmeasurable line of success because of what “might” have happened.

    Baxter Greene (af5030)

  12. I saw one of those stupid road signs outside of town. They scraped and repaved a section of perfectly good roadway. No cracking, no deterioration, no pot-holes, no nuttin. Just scraped and repaved a perfectly good section of road.

    John Hitchcock (3fd153)

  13. I wonder if the breakdown in those education jobs saved between teachers and administrators is available, for obvious reasons.

    daleyrocks (718861)

  14. This was all over the news in my neck of the woods.

    South-Western students will return to school this fall without sports, band or clubs after voters narrowly rejected a request for more operating money.

    The issue was defeated yesterday by 546 votes. Of the 32,444 district residents who cast ballots — nearly 40 percent of the eligible voters — 50.8 percent were opposed, according to final, unofficial results.

    (snip)

    The margin of defeat in May was 2,614, when 23,886 residents voted on an identical request for a four-year, 8.3-mill property tax.

    (snip)

    Wise said late last night that the board has made no decisions about whether to return to the ballot in November. The deadline to place a request on the fall ballot is Aug. 20.

    Terry Jones, president of the anti-levy South-Western Alternatives to Taxes, said his group will continue to fight.

    “I’ll make a prediction: If they bring this back on the general election, they’ll lose by big double digits,” he said

    And school officials now face another hurdle: making further reductions to erase at least a $5 million shortfall for the 2010-11 school year.

    Yeah, they’re gonna be re-voting next month. And I hope they fail again.

    John Hitchcock (3fd153)

  15. Two points – In Oregon the stimulus jobs “created” by the stimulus are on average less than 32 hours. Yes “HOURS”, as in each job “created” by the stimulus bill lasts less than a regular work week.

    Joe Biden proclaimed the stimulus worked, “Better than our wildest expectations.” The Utah Department of Energy got a 35 million dollar grant under stimulus and created three, (yes that’s “3”) jobs. So in other words Joe Bidens “wildest expectations” are that a 35,000,000 dollar investment will produce two (yes that is “2”) jobs.

    And remember J-O-B-S is a three letter word.

    Have Blue (854a6e)

  16. Yesterday on KFI’s John & Ken Show they noted a statistic that over CA has added 48 new state employees every day for the last 10 years!

    Beck showed a clip of Obama speaking to a SEIU gathering saying he talks with the head of SEIU before making decisions and promising that he would work to increase SEIU’s power across the country – “We’ll paint his country purple (SEIU’s union color).” There are reports that he speaks with the SEIU head by phone nearly daily and meets weekly in the WH with him.

    Clearly the President of the unionists.

    in_awe (a55176)

  17. […] per job. If so, we know from earlier reports that most of the jobs saved were government jobs, particularly schoolteachers. How many schoolteacher jobs should we be able to save for every $530,000 we spend? $16B of $339B […]

    Patterico’s Pontifications » Preliminary Stimulus Jobs Report (e4ab32)


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