Stimulus Saved Thousands of Jobs -- in Government

Last week's stimulus report claimed 640,000 jobs saved or created by the economic recovery plan so far. Those jobs came from 156,614 federal contracts, grants and loans awarded to more than 62,000 recipients, worth a total of $215 billion.

Obama has promised the stimulus would save or create 3.5 million jobs by the end of next year, and the data released Friday represented the first head count toward that goal.

The Journal review found that some colleges and universities counted every part-time student's work-study position as a full-time job. And some low-income housing landlords whose longtime contracts with the federal government were funded by the stimulus this year reported a total of 6,463 employees as jobs saved.

Dozens of recipients claimed to have created or saved at least one job with less than $2,000 in stimulus money, for a total of at least 3,300 jobs, according to the Journal review.

The Associated Press found that more than 250 other community agencies in the U.S. similarly reported saving jobs when using the money to give pay raises, pay for training and continuing education, extend employee work hours or buy equipment, according to their spending reports.

Most of the inflated figures were like those cited in the 935 saved jobs reported by the Southwest Georgia Community Action in Moultrie, Ga. The agency, like hundreds of others collecting Head Start money, claimed all its existing employees' jobs were saved because they received a pay raise with the stimulus cash.

The Georgia program inflated the numbers even further by claiming the recovery money saved more jobs than the number of people it actually employs. The agency employs 508 people but claimed 935 jobs were saved because of confusion over government reports.