Reports
News About the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
11/29/2010
Reuters - U.S. stimulus boosted jobs, output in Q3: CBO
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act put between 1.4 million and 3.6 million to work in the third quarter of this year, a time when more than 15 million Americans were unemployed, CBO said.
It also boosted national output by between 1.4 percent and 4.1 percent during that time, the CBO said.
The unemployment rate, currently 9.6 percent, would have been between 10.4 percent and 11.6 percent without the Recovery Act, the CBO said.
The stimulus created the equivalent of 2 million to 5.8 million jobs during the third quarter as part-time workers shifted to full-time work, or employers offered more overtime work. [11/24/10]
San Jose Mercury News (California) - Stimulus help for state roads, rail lines almost complete
Less than two years after the federal government rolled out a stimulus plan to spend $48 billion to rescue America's aging transportation system and keep construction crews working, the results are visible all over California.
The state has received $2.6 billion in stimulus funds for road and transit needs and completed or awarded contracts for 90 percent of 931 projects.
The Congressional Budget Office said stimulus spending added as many as 3.3 million jobs to the economy during the second quarter of this year, and may have prevented the nation from falling back into recession.
California estimates that each billion dollars spent yields about 18,000 jobs.
Kelly Kolander, president and CEO of O.C. Jones & Sons, the contractor for the I-280 metering projects, said at his firm the money "helped create and preserve over 40 jobs."
Officials with the Hayward firm Gillig, which built the VTA [Valley Transportation Authority] hybrids, say the stimulus contract helped the company avoid laying off any of its 700 workers.
Two major Bay Area projects have received funds -- nearly $200 million for the fourth bore in the Caldecott Tunnel and $96 million to replace the Doyle Drive approach to the Golden Gate Bridge. [11/28/10]
The Kansas City Star (Missouri) - Kansas sees major growth in construction work
A national association says Kansas led the nation in the percentage growth of construction employment when compare with last October.
The Associated General Contractors of America says 61,700 people were working in construction in Kansas in October. That’s a 9 percent increase over the 56,600 construction workers last October.
Stan Whitley, spokesman for the Kansas Department of Transportation, says Kansas dedicated about $350 million in federal stimulus dollars to more than 80 projects. And the last of five major highway projects using American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds was put under contract this spring. [11/25/10]
The Gazette (Maryland) - Two-year stimulus act funds 480 Johns Hopkins projects
The Johns Hopkins University was one of the beneficiaries of this plan, receiving before the program’s Sept. 30 end date $260 million in National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation research grants through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also known as the federal stimulus act. In all, 480 proposals were funded.
As of the end of October, Johns Hopkins reported 190 staff jobs created directly from stimulus funding (165 of those are filled, and 25 are still recruiting), not counting positions saved when other grants ran out, and not counting faculty and graduate student positions supported by ARRA grants. One hundred thirty-four of those jobs are in the School of Medicine, and 56 are elsewhere around the university. [11/29/10]
Other Headlines:
- The Spokesman Review (Washington) - Recovery Act funds give huge boost to outdoor recreation
- Evansville Courier and Press (Indiana) - Kentucky road drives home stimulus progress