Latest Job Estimates on the Stimulus — ProPublica

Latest Job Estimates on the Stimulus

March 5, 2009, 9:15 a.m. EST

ManyEyes A CBO report released yesterday (PDF) contains new estimates of the economic impact of the final version of the stimulus package passed by Congress.

Unlike older estimates, which were based on hypothetical stimulus formulations, this one is the real deal. The difference: not much. The overall job creation estimate is still 1.2 to 3.6 million jobs by the end of 2010.

The Obama administration has estimated that 3 million to 4 million jobs will be created or saved by the stimulus package, a fudgy estimate we drew attention to as the bill was being debated.

The difference in job estimates is accounted for by different multipliers, which are essentially estimates of how much impact on the economy each dollar of federal spending or tax cuts has.

Assuming a high return to government spending and tax cuts gets you a high number of jobs. Assuming a low return, means more dire predictions for the success of the stimulus bill.

Here is a timeline of the CBO’s best- and worst-case scenarios:

Follow ProPublica

Most Read

Latest Stories from ProPublica

Trump’s Lawyers Told the Court That No One Would Give Him a Bond. Then He Got a Lifeline, but They Didn’t Tell the Judges.

What to Know About the Roiling Debate Over U.S. Maternal Mortality Rates

As Elections Loom, Congressional Maps Challenged as Discriminatory Will Remain in Place

ProPublica Announces 50 State Initiative, Boosting Local Journalism Commitment

Republish This Story for Free

Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

Thank you for your interest in republishing this story. You are are free to republish it so long as you do the following:

You have to credit ProPublica and any co-reporting partners. In the byline, we prefer “Author Name, Publication(s).” At the top of the text of your story, include a line that reads: “This story was originally published by ProPublica.” You must link the word “ProPublica” to the original URL of the story.
If you’re republishing online, you must link to the URL of this story on propublica.org, include all of the links from our story, including our newsletter sign up language and link, and use our PixelPing tag.
If you use canonical metadata, please use the ProPublica URL. For more information about canonical metadata, refer to this Google SEO link.
You can’t edit our material, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style. (For example, “yesterday” can be changed to “last week,” and “Portland, Ore.” to “Portland” or “here.”)
You cannot republish our photographs or illustrations without specific permission. Please contact [email protected].
It’s okay to put our stories on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories. You can’t state or imply that donations to your organization support ProPublica’s work.
You can’t sell our material separately or syndicate it. This includes publishing or syndicating our work on platforms or apps such as Apple News, Google News, etc.
You can’t republish our material wholesale, or automatically; you need to select stories to be republished individually. (To inquire about syndication or licensing opportunities, contact [email protected].)
You can’t use our work to populate a website designed to improve rankings on search engines or solely to gain revenue from network-based advertisements.
We do not generally permit translation of our stories into another language.
Any website our stories appear on must include a prominent and effective way to contact you.
If you share republished stories on social media, we’d appreciate being tagged in your posts. We have official accounts for ProPublica on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Copy and paste the following into your page to republish:

Current site Current page