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Thursday, November 5, 2009
12:53 PM EST
Sandra Fabry

"Stimulus" Fuzzy Math of the Day: Saved 935 Jobs @ Place Employing 508

The following was originally posted at www.fiscalaccountability.org

There are so many examples of "fuzzy math" when it comes to the "stimulus" jobs data, we thought it was about time to launch a series called

"Stimulus" Fuzzy Math of the Day.

Today's nugget was brought to us by the Associated Press, which had already found many flaws with the very first data set launched by the Recovery Board. The Administration defiantly claimed these types of errors would be avoided with the second set because the data was being scrubbed for errors. Yet, story after story calls into question the math behind the "jobs saved/created metric" - and so does the AP again:

President Barack Obama's economic recovery program saved 935 jobs at the Southwest Georgia Community Action Council, an impressive success story for the stimulus plan. Trouble is, only 508 people work there.

(...)

About two-thirds of the 14,506 jobs claimed to be saved under one federal office, the Administration for Children and Families at Health and Human Services, actually weren't saved at all, according to a review of the latest data by The Associated Press. Instead, that figure includes more than 9,300 existing employees in hundreds of local agencies who received pay raises and benefits and whose jobs weren't saved.

Enough said.

photo credit: maubrowncow

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