White House Tally Appears to Overstate Stimulus Jobs

Wall Street Journal by Louise Radnofsky, Maurice Tamman | Nov. 4, 2009 (News Report)

The number of jobs the Obama administration credits to federal stimulus money could be overstated by at least 20,000 of the 640,000 claimed, a Wall Street Journal analysis found.

Recipients of the government grants and contracts appear to have made mistakes when estimating the number of jobs that have been saved or created, according to the Journal's review. Some recipients said they were confused by forms that asked how they spent the money. Full Story »

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2.8
 by Richard Riehl - Nov. 4, 2009

The story is built on the false premise that precision is possible with the jobs created/saved estimate based on responses from a very large number of individuals. Since it lists only tegregious examples of overcounts, failing to give examples of undercounts, the report doesn't have much credibility. It doesn't acknowledge that, even if it's 20,000 above the actual total, that makes the estimate 97% accurate. The story strikes me as more of a slanted opinion piece than straight reporting.

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