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It's been approximately 8 months (in two days) since the 787 billion dollar recovery act was passed by Congress and signed into a law by President Obama. While 8 months is not adequate amount of time to evaluate the largest recovery act in history, one can still inquire about the effects of the bill, with the main question being: has the act created jobs? The answer? It depends who you ask and how they define a "job." An article titled, Stimulus: Creating jobs or not attempts to provide clarity around this question. The article does a great job of summarizing the views of the White House, Republicans and state representatives. Essentially, the White House says yes, Republicans say no and state reps seem to be on the yes end. Things aren't so cut in dry of course, but in evaluating the effectiveness of the bailout in regards to job creation, it's important to keep (at least) three things in mind. First, rather than concentrating on the absolute number of jobs that have been created, consider the rate of jobs losses (creations). In these regards, the recovery Act has significantly slowed the rate of job losses. Specifically, the "number of jobs lost in the third quarter averaged 256,000 per month, two-thirds less than the country sustained at the beginning of the year." Additionally, from a micro viewpoint, states seem to believe that the stimulus is helping employ their residents. Confidence is a big driver of employment and the overall economy. Lastly, over half of the funds apportioned for the rescue plan haven't been spent yet. More money spent = more jobs? Not exactly, but it will certainly help.
