States Given Leeway in Tallying New Jobs from Stimulus - WSJ.com

States Given Leeway in Tallying New Jobs from Stimulus - WSJ.com

The White House is giving states a break when it comes to counting the number of jobs created or saved with the help of federal stimulus money.

President Barack Obama had promised that the stimulus plan would save or create 3.5 million jobs. Republicans have criticized the plan and the reliability of the administration's numbers.

The latest Wall Street Journal/NBC poll suggests growing public doubts, with 39% of those surveyed saying the stimulus is a "bad idea," up from 27% in January.



Meanwhile, some state officials worried about how they were supposed to count jobs credited to the stimulus. Now, the White House Office of Management and Budget has given states guidance calming these concerns.

"All we're asking them to do is a simple headcount; tell us how many people you hired," said Rob Nabors, the deputy director of the office, in an interview.

Recipients won't be asked to grapple with complicated estimates, he added. Instead, they may use their best guess whether a job would have been created or saved in the absence of a recovery plan, and to not count it if they are uncertain.

Philip Mattera, research director for the economic development research group Good Jobs First, said the method appeared to be "a bit impressionistic" and presented pitfalls. "One is the risk of unreasonable reporting; the other risk is how the whole system is perceived because of the possibility of unreasonable reporting," he said.

Craig Jennings, a senior policy analyst at the nonpartisan OMB Watch, also said the new guidance could allow state officials to use their own definition for the number of hours in a "full-time equivalent" job, thus making it possible to credit stimulus projects for more employment.

OMB officials said the method was the easiest and quickest way for recipients to give the required information, and that making the reports publicly available allowed anyone to question them.

The new counting guidance has come as a relief to officials in state capitols, said Chris Whatley, Washington director of the Council of State Governments, a nonpartisan network.

"The first guidance left it up to individual states to determine the methodology, and that caused confusion," he said. States had feared that they could be criticized either for being too optimistic, or too pessimistic, about the job numbers they reported.

Mr. Whatley said that states had plenty of data to support their job creation and retention estimates, and that "for the most part, it's a technocratic exercise."

Still, he said, "There are 50 different governors with 50 different personalities and they will expect different things from their staff."