Deconstructing the Jobs Numbers

Since Obama's stenographers in the state-controlled media won't do their job, it's left to those in the field--in this case, construction--to break down the numbers claimed to be jobs saved or created.

Well, Chris Thorman, who blogs about construction estimating software crunched the numbers, and it isn't pretty.

Recovery.gov recently released their quarterly report on stimulus bill funds and our team at Construction Software Advice has compiled the construction related data to gain a clearer picture of how the ARRA is influencing the construction industry.

The major question surrounding the ARRA and the construction industry on this reporting deadline is: How many construction jobs has the stimulus bill actually created or retained?

We downloaded the state summaries from Recovery.org; sorted the project activity codes by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) construction industry definition (23); and compiled those construction project numbers.

According to the data released on October 30th by Recovery.gov, the ARRA has created or saved 76,214 construction jobs across the nation at a total cost of $15.8 billion since the bill was signed into law.

That’s $222,491 per construction job.
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Unemployment in the construction industry has more than doubled in the last two years and as you can see, the stimulus bills has so far had a negligible effect on construction unemployment. There are over 600,000 more construction workers unemployed right now than there were in 2008.

The verdict so far on the stimulus bill and construction job creation across the country?

Jobs are being created and saved but nowhere near a rate that will allow the stimulus bill to claim victory over construction unemployment.

Also have a look at the state-by-state numbers at the link.