Statistics can be tricky. It all depends on who is doing the math and for what purpose. The latest report on how many jobs can be attributed to the workings of the stimulus package is a perfect case in point. The Obama Administration came out at the end of October with the announcement that the stimulus package has created 650,000 jobs.

To give the government credit, it didn't just pull that number out of a hat. The Recovery, Accountability, and Transparency Board (RATB) is an independent entity that has tracked the money being spent for the Recovery Act. Every dollar being spent can be seen in an array of charts and information on the Recovery.gov website.

According to the White House website, $340 billion of the stimulus money has been committed to infrastructure projects, small business loans, unemployment benefits, state fiscal relief, tax cuts and etc. The administration says all this spending has saved or created one million jobs. The catch is that not all the entities that have received government funds are required to report job information to the RATB. The jobs saved claim can be a particularly tricky one to pin down. Much of those numbers are attributed to teachers and healthcare workers that didn't have to be let go.

The 650,000 jobs created also don't include what is considered indirect jobs. "...those created when the directly hired contractor orders some cement, the school teacher orders classroom supplies, or when both of them spend their paychecks in the economy, generating more economic activity and jobs than would have occurred if they were unemployed," said Jared Bernstein, chief economist to Joe Biden.

The Obama administration says that only about half the stimulus money that was dedicated to job creation has been spent and they are still on track to create or save 3.5 million jobs by the end of next year. Even then, the White House admits, that will not completely offset the number of jobs lost during the recession.

While the president's math may be overly optimistic, it's based on hard numbers and has been tracked with relentless transparency. What is a little fuzzier is the Republicans argument about what those jobs created through the stimulus package is costing the American taxpayers.

According to the Associated Press, some Republican lawmakers who are critical of President Obama's stimulus package are dividing the stimulus money spent so far by the estimated number of jobs saved or created. That kind of equation makes it look like each job saved cost the taxpayers over $246,000.

Here is why that statistic is misleading. First, the AP points out that each job is more than just the worker. It is also the materials and supplies needed to do the job, as well as the actual output of the job. So, the money funds the construction worker, the supplies as well as a portion of the bridge repaired, for example.

Also, that number is based on jobs produced to date and doesn't take into account that these jobs have the potential to last for years. Some of the jobs created thus far will also create other jobs, like hiring one engineer to design a product will produce more jobs down the line. As mentioned before, lots of indirect jobs created and saved aren't included in the 650,000 jobs. The effectiveness of the stimulus package may be debatable and statistics can be confusing, but they shouldn't be misleading.


Ki created a website to provide a free search for Austin homes for sale. This is a service for potential buyers of Austin real estate. His site also provides market updates on his Austin real estate blog. Ki has lived in Austin, Texas for the last ten years.

Somewhere, somehow 600,000 jobs are going to be created and/or saved by the end of summer. In fact, the White House announced recently that 150,000 jobs have been saved in the last few months. Maybe it was yours; maybe it was mine. The problem is that all this job saving is a little difficult to pin down.

President Obama announced recently that this summer will see a ramping up of spending from the $787 billion stimulus fund and create or save 600,000 jobs. According to the Associated Press, the President spoke to his cabinet about "modest progress" in the economy. In particular he cited that fewer jobs were lost last month than expected. There have also been some admissions from this administration that their original economic forecasts made at the end of last year were too optimistic.

"At the time, our forecast seemed reasonable," said Vice President Joe Biden's top economic adviser, Jared Bernstein, explaining that the White House underestimated the scope of the recession.

By the White House's earlier estimates the nation's unemployment rate should be about 8 percent, not the 25-year-high 9.4 percent. It seems everything is on the rise these days from the President's un-approval rating for how he is handling the economy to gas prices to the national deficit.

But the Obama administration is trying to make things better. According to Recovery.gov, in the next 100 days the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will save or create jobs in the following areas
* Department of Health and Human Services -- Enable 1,129 health centers in 50 states and eight territories to provide expanded service to approximately 300,000 patients
* Department of the Interior -- Begin work on 107 national parks
* Department of Transportation -- Begin work on rehabilitation and improvement projects at 98 airports and at more than 1,500 highway locations throughout the country
* Department of Education -- Fund 135,000 education jobs, including teachers, principals and support staff
* Department of Veterans Affairs -- Begin improvements at 90 veterans medical centers across 38 states
* Department of Justice -- Hire or keep on the job approximately 5,000 law enforcement officers
* Department of Agriculture -- Start 200 new waste and water systems in rural America

The government will also be flush with money in the weeks ahead as ten banks have been given permission by the Treasury Department to repay money they received from the government bailout of the banking industry. According to the Associated Press, $68 billion of the nearly $200 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program funds will be returned from banks such as JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and American Express.

There are other signs that the economy is slowly starting to improve. Granted most of the good news is really in the category of less-bad-news, but job losses are down, the economy is sinking at a lower rate and consumer confidence is starting to return. What is nearly impossible to track is if the improvement is a result of government intervention or just a part of the economic cycle.


Ki bikes Shoal Creek when he is not working. He has focused on real estate since graduating. His website is focused on Austin Texas real estate, where future owners can search for listings in the Austin MLS. His website has a blog devoted to Austin real estate with current market stats and information.

$787 billion is a nearly unfathomable number. What does it really mean and where it all that money going? According to the official American Recovery and Reinvestment Act website the money is broken down in the following manner:

$288 billion - Tax relief
$144 billion - State and local fiscal relief
$111 billion - Infrastructure and science
$81 billion - Protecting the vulnerable
$59 billion - Health care
$53 billion - Education and training
$43 billion - Energy
$8 billion - Other

The biggest chunk of the money goes to something called "tax relief." The website defines it as including "$15 B for Infrastructure and Science, $61 B for Protecting the Vulnerable, $25 B for Education and Training and $22 B for Energy, so total funds are $126 B for Infrastructure and Science, $142 B for Protecting the Vulnerable, $78 B for Education and Training, and $65 B for Energy." That does not really make anything clearer.

The Washington Post recently broke it down in even greater detail, summarizing the payments that would go directly to individuals. The biggest portion of that money goes to Medicaid at $90 billion. This money will go directly to the states, providing a 6.2 percent increase in medical benefits for the poor over the next 27 months. It also helps bolster the COBRA program that provides health insurance for laid-off workers.

The next category of money going to individuals is $73. 8 billion in tax provisions, which includes $69 billion in tax credit payments. This is where most Americans will see some money going directly into their pockets. The Making Work Pay credit "will return up to $400 a year to individuals and $800 year to families in each of the next two years. The cash will flow into the paychecks of individual workers making less than $95,000 a year and couples who earn less than $190,000." What this really means is Americans can expect around $20 extra in their paychecks each week.

The tax provisions also include tuition tax credits and expands the child tax credit to $1000 per child.

There is $57.2 billion allocated for assistance to unemployed families and $25.1 billion going toward health insurance. There is $20.8 billion being funneled into health information technology, an Obama campaign priority of creating a nationwide network of electronic medical records. This is primarily a job creation initiative.

The rest of the money gets divided into six major categories: Transportation, Education, Science, Environment, Energy and Military. The biggest chunk goes into education related programs from helping children in poverty go to preschool to renovating schools to providing aid to needy college students. As the website states, the economic stimulus package "targets investments towards key areas that will save or create good jobs immediately, while also laying the groundwork for long-term economic growth."

The President also promises transparency and accountability. Vice President Biden has the task of overseeing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, along with former Inspector General at the Interior Department, Earl Devaney. Devaney was named head of the ARRA Accountability Board last week.


In Austin, Texas, Ki set up his office three years ago. His site provides a search of the Austin MLS. He also has a information on Austin real estate and Cedar Park real estate.