Full rollout of recipient reporting now online
Want to see how recipients of stimulus funds are spending their money and how many jobs are being created or saved by stimulus funds?  Full recipient data from prime and sub-recipients of ARRA funds of $25,000 or more are now online at Recovery.gov, where the stimulus can be tracked down to the zip code on a project-by-project basis.  A total of 130,362 reports were filed by recipients throughout October for stimulus loans (607 reports), contracts (13,080 reports), and grants (116,675 reports), according to Recovery.gov.  Reports include information on the amount of stimulus funds received by each recipient, funds expended, a description and location of projects, and how many jobs were created or saved by the funds.  In Illinois, more than 24,000 jobs were created or saved, and nationally approximately 640,000 jobs were created or saved by stimulus funds, as reported by recipients.  Keep in mind, recipient reporting is currently based on $160 billion of the total $787 billion in the ARRA and does not take into account any jobs that were indirectly saved or created thanks to stimulus funds.  The next reporting period for recipients of stimulus funds will begin on January 1, 2010.

Decoding the numbers and maps based on recipient reports can be difficult.  Thankfully, there are a wealth of government and non-governmental resources to help understand the progress of ARRA in real-life terms. In addition, CMAP will soon be expanding our analyses of the stimulus, using this data to provide regional summaries and evaluation of spending for transportation, housing programs, workforce development, energy, and weatherization.  The following resources and recent reports provide helpful and interesting information for those interested in better understanding the impacts thus far:

• Recovery Act in Action:  Recipient Reports on Jobs
  This paper, released by the Office of the Vice President, explains with more in-depth information how jobs were reportedly created or saved in the context of the entire $787 billion in stimulus funds.
• ProPublica’s Unofficial Guide to Recovery.gov
  ProPublica analyses Recovery.gov’s recently published data in terms of jobs, need, transparency, equity, investments, and waste, fraud and abuse.
• President Obama’s Weekly Address
  Obama’s weekly address for the week of October 23, 2009 focuses on the jobs created and strengthening of the economy as related to the work of the stimulus.
• Stimulus Jobs Check:  Are They For Real?
  CBS Evening News visited both California and Illinois on Friday, October 30 to evaluate the validity of reported jobs that were created or saved by the stimulus.  Though the outlook was grim from inside a California school, news was a bit brighter from inside Chicago’s Ba Le Vietnamese Bakery.
• Stimulus gave state 16,000 school, highway jobs
  The Chicago Tribune provided an insightful analysis of recipient reporting as it pertains to the state of Illinois. Of jobs saved and created in Illinois, the majority were in the education sector, according to the article.