The latest report on the impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office shows that in the 1st quarter of 2010, the Recovery Act:
Raised the level of inflation-adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) by between 1.7 percent and 4.2 percent
Lowered the unemployment rate by between 0.7 and 1.5 percentage points
Increased the number of people employed by between 1.2 million and 2.8 million
While more must be done to create and save jobs, this is even better than earlier CBO estimates for this time period. Looking ahead, CBO projects up to 3.7 million American jobs could be attributed to the Recovery Act by the end of the September.
In January 2009, before Congress enacted the Recovery Act, Americans lost 779,000 jobs in just one month. A year later, job losses have turned to jobs gains of 290,000 in April–the largest gain in four years and a 1 million job swing from the end of the Bush Administration. This marks the fourth month of job growth with 573,000 American jobs added since December–84% in private sector. This is a sharp reversal from the job losses and deep economic crisis President Bush left behind. If job growth continues at this pace, the Obama Administration will create more jobs in 2010, than the Bush Administration created in eight years:
