Stimulus Reports Detail Job Creation

Reports from the first recipients of Recovery Act funds were released on October 15th. Though they detail just a tiny sliver of the Recovery Act pie—less than two percent of the total, in fact—the initial reports provide insight into the reporting process and the benefits Texas can expect to see from its share of the Recovery Act. The reports were released via Recovery.gov and show a net benefit of almost 31,000 jobs created or saved nationwide due to the contracts that make up this fraction of Recovery Act funds. Texas saw a benefit of almost 1,100 jobs from a variety of small business contracts, engineering projects, and more.  Details from each of those reports are available on Recovery.gov.

The available data will expand throughout the month as we see more reports on contracts, grants, and loans that have been received so far. By the end of October, reporting on just over a third of the Recovery Act—or about $275 billion—will be complete. Entitlement spending and tax relief, which combine to make up more than 65 percent of the $787 billion in the Recovery Act, will not be subject to these reporting requirements, meaning the final job numbers may be underreported. Last month, the White House Council of Economic Advisors estimated that the Recovery Act had created or saved one million jobs so far. Initial estimates when the law was signed put the eventual total at 3.5 million, including 269,000 in Texas, and a great deal of those jobs will be created in the education and construction sectors.