On the 18-month anniversary of the release of the Romer/Bernstein report, the table below compares the Obama Administration’s January 9, 2009 prediction for how many jobs its stimulus plan would create with what actually happened, by industry. As the table shows, most industries have not seen even one net new job since the Administration’s stimulus plan. The sole exceptions are Government (+201,000) and Education, Health and Social Services (+434,000, which includes 100,000 social assistance jobs, 52,000 education jobs, and 282,000 health care jobs). Through June 2010, many industries (construction, manufacturing, information, and transportation and warehousing) actually lost more jobs than the Administration predicted they would gain following stimulus.
Industry |
Administration Prediction of Job Creation by the End of 2010 |
Actual Change in Jobs since Stimulus (February 2009 – June 2010) |
Construction |
678,000 |
-853,000 |
Manufacturing |
408,000 |
-707,000 |
Financial Activities |
214,000 |
-310,000 |
Retail Trade |
604,000 |
-286,800 |
Professional and Business Services |
345,000 |
-211,000 |
Information |
50,000 |
-158,000 |
Transportation and Warehousing |
98,000 |
-155,600 |
Wholesale Trade |
158,000 |
-135,400 |
Other Services |
99,000 |
-72,000 |
Leisure and Hospitality |
499,000 |
-69,000 |
Mining |
26,000 |
-16,900 |
Utilities |
11,000 |
-7,500 |
Government |
244,000 |
+201,000 |
Education, Health and Social Services |
240,000 |
+434,000 |
Total |
3,675,000 |
-2,347,200 |