A little flash backward.....let's see if we can figure out why the GOP might say no.
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- From upgrading the electricity grid to rebuilding bridges to computerizing medical records, there are plenty of ways the economic-stimulus bill aims to prop up the economy and create millions of jobs.
But what kinds of jobs -- and who will qualify for them? Those are questions that 11.6 million unemployed Americans may well be asking. See story on 598,000 jobs lost in January.
U.S. Unemployment Rate JumpsU.S. employment plunged in January, new data show. WSJ's Phil Izzo and Kelly Evans discuss the growing job losses and what it signals about the rest of the year.
For construction workers, the stimulus plan may be the best news in years. After losing about 900,000 jobs since September 2006, as many as 670,000 construction workers could be back on the job by the end of 2010, according to some estimates -- if the stimulus bill works as planned.
What about when the stimulus runs out of money???
That job growth would come from projects to rebuild roads and bridges, plus make schools, homes and government buildings more energy-efficient, among other initiatives. Of course, construction projects aren't all alike and workers from, say, the residential industry may need to retrain.
Why not build more schools????Who is going to pay to retrain the workers and how long will that take????
Meanwhile, computer programmers, information-technology experts and data-entry workers should benefit from the goal to computerize the nation's medical records.
"The idea is to have the entire U.S. hospital and medical system able to share medical records. That's a big project that will require a lot of information-technology programmers and data entry, people to scan records into the system," says Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank in Washington.
Why is this needed and what happens to those jobs when all the records are entered??
Sounds kinda temporary to me
Still, the stimulus plan includes saving jobs, not just creating them. Other than construction, most new jobs may not emerge until next year, Eisenbrey said.
Uncertain outcome
Overall, the stimulus plan would create or save about 3.6 million jobs by the end of 2010, according to projections last month by Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein, economists in the Obama administration, based on early versions of the stimulus plan. They say a stimulus bill would mean an unemployment rate of 7% in 2010, versus 8.8% otherwise. The estimate doesn't detail how many jobs are saved, as opposed to created.
Ummm.....we are at 9.7% now and that's not even the "Real" unemployment
Many uncertainties remain. The estimates are based on an early draft version of the bill. The Senate is expected to act on its version of the bill early this week; the House has already passed a bill and there are some big differences between the two that will have to be worked out before legislation goes to the president for his signature.
Also, assessing job creation is an inexact science. Romer and Bernstein repeatedly noted "considerable uncertainty" in their estimates.
Well I guess they covered themselves with this
Mark Zandi, chief economist with Moody's Economy.com, said in an estimate last month that about three million jobs would be created or saved by the end of 2010. Sectors beyond construction should see a pick up hiring thanks to billions of additional dollars pushed through the economy -- Zandi forecast an added 386,000 retail and 346,000 leisure and hospitality jobs -- but also directly through planned projects.
For you folks scoring at home that's roughly 10% of the jobs lost
For instance, the plan's focus on alternative energy would help wind farms, which need manufacturers to make turbine components, operations and maintenance people to run farms, and financial-services workers to structure financing for these projects, said Britt Theismann, membership director of the American Wind Energy Association, a trade group.
Of course first the need a way to get this energy to work large scale....no need to build the stuff before it can be used
A plan to improve the nation's electricity infrastructure and craft a "smart grid," eventually giving consumers more control over their electricity use, might create jobs for electrical, communications and computer engineers, said Gordon Day, president of the IEEE-USA, a professional association for engineers
The plan's focus on infrastructure projects could mean jobs beyond construction. "Many large public-works projects will require accountants, bookkeepers, controllers, auditors and other accounting and finance-related positions," said Paul McDonald, executive director of Robert Half Management Resources, in an email.
Again, what happens to these "might create" and "could mean" jobs when the stimulus runs out?
Health-care and government workers should benefit from a big influx of federal funds into the Medicaid program and other aid to states, plus an expected expansion of health-care benefits for unemployed people, says Paul McIntosh, executive director of the California State Association of Counties, in Sacramento. That could mean, for instance, more office-assistant and administrative jobs in hospital billing departments.
Except they were trying to cut Medicaid in Health Care reform
For those at the executive or manager level, expertise in computer science or alternative-energy research and development may pay off, said Mark Anderson, president of ExecuNet, a Norwalk, Conn.-based network of executives. "People who manage new technology are clearly going to be at a premium."
Hmm....might create,could create and may pay off. With statement like these it is hard to believe the GOP could vote no on the stimulus package isn't it
