Beware that I'm using arithmatic below (Stimulus brings boost not bounty):
A 2.3-mile stretch of road that bridges the Neuse River is set to open this week in Johnston County - a sliver of the $19.4 billion in federal stimulus money being spent in North Carolina. ...
There are no precise numbers on how many jobs were created or preserved in North Carolina by the stimulus package.
The state recovery office has tracked the effects of stimulus spending in North Carolina for the past two years.
The office's best guess is that about 25,000 North Carolinians have worked - either through jobs created or jobs preserved over that period, said John McHugh, who worked as a senior analyst for the office.Some of the money went to help local governments balance their budgets, which kept many communities from potentially having to lay off thousands of public school teachers and police officers in recent years. ...
McHugh believes the 25,000 jobs figure provides an incomplete picture because it excludes the effect of major portions of the stimulus package.
It doesn't include jobs created through loans and grants made to businesses through various stimulus programs.
The stimulus office estimates 9,600 North Carolina jobs were saved and another 4,600 were created through such programs.
Based on the three numbers above, the jobs created by the ARRA in North Carolina is 39,200. Assuming that "thousands of teachers and police officers" is equal to zero, the cost per job is $494,898. If ARRA saved all of the teacher and police officer jobs in North Carolina then the cost per job saved would be $127,523. Of course, the range is too wide. Suppose that ARRA saved between 10% and 50% of the teacher and police officer jobs. Then the range would be $202,792 to $384,212.
Given the most generous estimate of my narrow rangae, if the purpose of ARRA was to create jobs it would have been 50% cheaper to lump sum transfer $100k to eligible job losers.
The cost of ARRA as a job creation problem seems high in North Carolina. What am I missing?
