The price of a job

...is apparently $224,857, according to the White House.

Obama's team is touting the "progress" of their stimulus package. They've claimed that it has saved 1 million jobs "so far."

Numbers released today claim the actual total of jobs saved is 650,000. Even that number is questionable, but White House officials insist this confirms their estimates of 1 million because the 650,000 "do[es] not include much of the package's spending -- tax cuts, safety net spending and fiscal aid to strapped states, which injected tens of billions more into the economy and, in the case of the state aid, forestalled layoffs of state workers."

Okay, so they're guessing. At least they acknowledge it, though I find it odd that they mix tax cuts and fiscal aid (which requires increased taxes) as both being beneficial.

But the 650,000 jobs are confirmed, right?

The Associated Press has gone to town on this assertion. Among many other discrepancies, they've found:

East Central Technical College in Douglas, GA, claimed 280 jobs saved, though this was actually the number of students who benefited from a stimulus grant.

Teletech Government Solutions in Colorado got a $28.3 million contract with the FCC for creating a call center and reported 4,231 new jobs. 3,000 of those workers were actually only paid for five weeks or less.

How many more of these discrepancies exist?

Let's say for a minute that the White House's 3-year projection of "3.5 million jobs created or saved" stands. (And how do they measure "saved" jobs? I digress...)

The stimulus package cost us $787 billion.

3.5 million jobs at $787 billion is $224,857 per job.

The administration's current estimate of 1 million jobs at $787 billion is $787,000 per job.

The recently published numbers of 650,000 jobs at $787 billion is $1,210,769 per job.

You do the math - even on the administration's numbers - and tell me you think it makes sense.

(Thanks to Kevin for some of the material here.)