Recovery Act and Jobs
Amid conflicting reports of continuing layoffs in the government and other economic sectors and optimism elsewhere that the worst of the “Great Recession” may be over, a new Obama administration document outlines the job-creation methodology to be used as implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act continues. Whether this turns out to be “simple, conservative and accurate,” as the White House states, or complicated, hyperbolic and largely an exercise in guesswork, remains to be seen. It’s fair to say that the state and local reporting requirements will be burdensome, but filed without complaint as needed, but perhaps insufficient, relief trickles in.
According to recently released data from the U.S. Department of Labor, the unemployment rate in April was 8.9 percent, a 25-year high.