Freep: Stimulus funds create few jobs in Michigan

The Detroit Free Press reports on their own study of more than 1,800 government reports that concludes, despite state government claims that stimulus project spending has created or retained 22,500 jobs in Michigan, that stimulus money has failed to create any significant number of jobs at all since the money started flowing in April.

The analysis also found:

• Three of every four stimulus grants, contracts and loans approved in Michigan created or retained one job or less.

• Fewer than 700 awards had received some money, and nearly half of those — 327 — had created one job or less, at a cost per job of $2.7 million.

• Some job estimates were wrong: General Motors Co., for instance, reported 105 jobs saved or created for a government purchase of 5,000 vehicles but later said no jobs were saved or created. The City of Detroit reported 342 jobs it now says were projections — not jobs already created or retained.

Peter Morici, a University of Maryland economist, said the results suggest the stimulus won’t deliver promised results.

“All those claims,” he said, “are ridiculous.”

The report says that many of the claims of jobs saved or created were based solely on projections because the money for those projects had not yet arrived; many of those projections have proven false in projects once they’ve been funded.

Only a fraction of the money allocated for stimulus spending has actually gone to projects that have begun, so it may be that more jobs will yet be created as a result. But so far, with Michigan having the highest unemployment rate in the nation, there is little evidence that the stimulus bill has done much to keep that rate from getting worse.