WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is defending its claim that the $787 billion economic stimulus plan will save or create 3.5 million jobs before 2011 even while conceding that unemployment will likely continue to rise beyond its earlier predictions.
A report Monday by the White House Council of Economic Advisers said the projections were based on conservative estimates and widely accepted assumptions.
The 3.5 million job estimate remains valid, the report said, now that stimulus money is starting to pay for various projects throughout the nation.
The assessment was the same as what Obama’s economists forecast in January, when they predicted that the economic stimulus would prevent unemployment from rising above 8 percent. But unemployment reached 8.9 percent in April and the chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisers, Christina Romer, said over the weekend that current predictions that unemployment would reach 9.5 percent were "pretty realistic".
by the associated press
A report Monday by the White House Council of Economic Advisers said the projections were based on conservative estimates and widely accepted assumptions.
The 3.5 million job estimate remains valid, the report said, now that stimulus money is starting to pay for various projects throughout the nation.
The assessment was the same as what Obama’s economists forecast in January, when they predicted that the economic stimulus would prevent unemployment from rising above 8 percent. But unemployment reached 8.9 percent in April and the chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisers, Christina Romer, said over the weekend that current predictions that unemployment would reach 9.5 percent were "pretty realistic".
by the associated press
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