The Obama Administration famously predicted its so-called stimulus plan would “save or create 3.5 million jobs.” However, yesterday the President admitted that, “we haven’t always gotten the numbers right.” An understatement? You decide: two million jobs have been destroyed between February and June 2009. The unemployment rate reached 9.5% in June, well above the 8% level the Administration projected if stimulus passed. A total of 2.5 million Americans are now “unprojected unemployed” – people whose unemployment exceeds projections made by the Obama Administration in selling its stimulus plan. Since such large numbers can be difficult to grasp, the following provides context about the enormity of the 2.5 million “unprojected unemployed” number:
- If the 2.5 million “unprojected unemployed” since stimulus stood back to back, that unemployment line would stretch for 472 miles – the distance from Washington D.C. to Toledo, Ohio.
- The 2.5 million “unprojected unemployed” since stimulus is an average of 5,724 for each of the 435 Congressional districts represented in the U.S. House.
- The 2.5 million “unprojected unemployed” since stimulus is larger than the population of 15 U.S. States (AK, DE, HI, ID, ME, MT, NE, NH, NM, ND, RI, SD, VT, WV, WY).
- The 2.5 million “unprojected unemployed” since stimulus equals 2,964 jobs lost for every hour of every working day since President Obama signed the stimulus law on Feb. 17, 2009.
- The 2.5 million “unprojected unemployed” since stimulus is 1 million more than the number of all people in the U.S. Armed Forces.
- The 2.5 million “unprojected unemployed” since stimulus is larger than the combined populations of the cities in each of two National Football League divisions – the AFC North (Baltimore, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh have a combined population of 1.7 million) and the NFC South (Atlanta, Charlotte, New Orleans, and Tampa have a combined population of 1.9 million).
Source: Ways and Means staff estimates, using Census Bureau and other data.
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