"Saved and Created" is No More

By Elizabeth Newell

The administration has officially ditched the "jobs saved or created" measure of performance under the Recovery Act and will instead be reporting on jobs funded.

In a letter to Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., a vocal critic of how job creation was being reported under the stimulus, Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board Chairman Earl Devaney confirmed the change, which was first reported by Government Executive in December. According to Devaney, auditing jobs funded is considerably easier than auditing jobs created or saved, which Devaney called "more subjective."

"Recovery.gov will be changed to indicate that the jobs reported by recipients during this most recent reporting period reflect jobs that were funded by the Recovery Act between October 1 and December 31, 2009," Devaney said. "We will also include information on Recovery.gov that will explain how job estimates were calculated in the first reporting period and how they were calculated in the second reporting period."

As Issa pointed out, however, senior administration officials did not seem to have made the rhetorical switch as of Sunday talk show time. Two White House senior advisors - David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett -- referenced jobs saved or created on Sunday, as did White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.