Obama Recovery Plan Targets Construction & Retail Sectors

Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein have written a memo which estimates how many jobs might be created by President-elect Obama's economic recovery plan.

The paper includes the following table estimating the distribution of jobs in the 4th quarter of 2010:

Job Creation of Recovery Package by Industry
(Industry Jobs Created in 2010Q4)

Mining 26,000
Construction 678,000
Manufacturing – Total 158,000
Retail Trade 604,000
Information 50,000
Financial Activities 214,000
Professional and Business Services 345,000
Education and Health Services 240,000
Leisure and Hospitality 499,000
Other Services 99,000
Utilities 11,000
Transportation and Warehousing 98,000
Government – Total 244,000

Total 3,675,000

Sources: Authors’ calculations and estimates of effects by industry from Mark Zandi, “The Economic Impact of a $600 Billion Fiscal Stimulus Package,” Moody’s economy.com, Nov. 28, 2008.

"...The estimates suggest that 30% of the jobs created will be in construction and manufacturing, even though these industries employ only 15% of all workers. Both sectors have been particularly hard hit recently. The other two significant sectors that are disproportionately represented in job creation are retail trade and leisure and hospitality (mining is also represented disproportionately, but employs less than 1% of all workers)."

Posted by Chuck Bell at 2:37 PM