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I hope things are working out better than this where you are...

'Stim' out of steam -- Half-billion in fed cash for measly 54 local jobs

The feds have spent a half-billion dollars on 10 of the largest government stimulus contracts in New York City and Long Island -- but created or retained only 54 jobs.

That's an astounding $9 million per job.

The largest contract, at Brookhaven labs on Long Island for $261 million, has put only 26 people on the payroll, while two contracts for $23 million apiece to rehab the Thurgood Marshall Courthouse in Manhattan hasn't created a single job, according to new data.

A $53 million contract to fix a Brooklyn post office created just a third of a job, while a $5.5 million plumbing contract for a federal courthouse didn't create any.

Statewide, New York has gotten $776 million in government contracts through the stimulus, creating or saving 656 jobs [a much more efficient mere $1.18 million per job] according to the data, which the feds compile from contractors. ...

A $15 million contract for the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research on Long Island to test new ways to treat schizophrenia has created just 3.8 jobs.

But John Kane, who runs the program, said, "If we are successful in helping people with this illness, it means that many of the people helped by it could get jobs and function in the community."... [NY Post]

Well, that's something to look forward too. And we do know the NYC transit union workers union got themselves an 11% pay raise for doing their current jobs from $350 million of stimulus money the for coming years (when already paid like this). So while that may create any more jobs for anybody, hey, those who already have jobs get more. And it's pretty much the same story with stimulus funds given to the public school system.

This count of jobs created in New York is part of a national count...

First hard stimulus data finds 30,000 jobs saved or created

The first direct stimulus reports showed that stimulus contracts saved or created just 30,083 jobs...

Obama administration officials stressed that data was partial -- it represented just $16 billion out of the $339 billion awarded -- but they said it exceeded their projections.

So their expectations were that the stimulus would cost more than $531,861 per job.

The White House recovery team said that the reported jobs number represented just 5 percent of the jobs directly saved or created by stimulus since it came out of contracts that represented only 5 percent of the stimulus spending so far... [The Hill]

Which is a "change the subject" response, to get away from questions about why the stimulus is so costly per job, and so late, being that with the recession now closing in on two years old, the great bulk of the stimulus spending still hasn't occurred yet.