White House: Stimulus funds saved or created 22,000 jobs in Mich.

Deb Price / Detroit News Washington Bureau

Washington -- The $787 billion economic stimulus package approved in February has created or saved 22,514 direct jobs in Michigan, according to data released today by the Obama administration.

Michigan -- with a 15.3 percent unemployment rate that is the highest in the country -- posted the ninth-largest number of direct jobs saved or created of all states.

No data is available for indirect jobs created, for example from the impact of Michiganians spending stimulus-financed tax cut money or unemployment benefits.

As of Sept. 30, $5.2 billion had been pumped into the state in the form of 3,999 contracts, grants and loans that have paid for such things as teachers and police, job training and health centers for the uninsured.

"We are on track and beginning to see and feel the impact of the recovery dollars," Leslee Fritz, the director of Michigan Economic Recovery Office, said of the data. "There's a lot more money to be spent and impact to be felt in Michigan."

But Rep. Dave Camp, R-Midland, said the numbers show that the stimulus package hasn't worked.

"Facts are stubborn things, and the fact is America has lost 3 million jobs, and Michigan has lost nearly 140,000 jobs on the president's watch," Camp said.

Nationally, 640,329 direct jobs have been saved or created as the result of $160 billion spent through Sept. 30. About 325,000 of the jobs are in education, and more than 80,000 are in construction.

The first detailed data -- posted at recovery.gov -- is based on reporting by 57,000 state and local governments, private companies, colleges and universities, community groups and other stimulus recipients nationwide.

Vice President Joe Biden said an additional 400,000 indirect jobs have been created or saved nationally through $175 billion in such stimulative measures as tax cuts, Pell grants, small-business loans and unemployment insurance, pushing the total to more than 1 million saved or created jobs.

"These reports are strong confirmation that the Recovery Act is responsible for over 1 million jobs so far, and we are on track to create and save 3.5 million jobs through the Recovery Act by the end of next year," said Biden, who noted that less than half of the stimulus money has been spent.

Biden was flanked by Govs. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a California Republican, and Martin O'Malley, a Maryland Democrat, who gushed about the effect of the recovery dollars in their states.

"Some of our colleagues are saying it hasn't done much, or it was a waste of money; well I would dispute that," said Schwarzenegger, adding the $12.5 billion his state has received in stimulus has saved or created more 100,000 jobs.

The White House said states with the highest jobless rates reported 25 percent more created and saved jobs per capita than the country overall.

dprice@detnews.com (202) 662-8736