It's possible they set up the stimulus so that it wouldn't go through too quickly, and they could cancel large chunks if the economy rebounded faster than expected. Just guesswork on my part.
But it's very funny listening to the howling about too much spending followed by howling about not enough fast spending followed by worries about deficits followed by.....
The circle just goes round and round.
Here's why spending money in the government takes time:
DC Govt Jobs Hiring Boom goes into high Gear
Though the number of unemployed people is rising in the Washington area, Kimberly A. Holder of the Food and Drug Administration has an opposite problem: She's looking for people to fill hundreds of positions slated to open soon.
"We're expanding," said Holder, the FDA's assistant commissioner for management, who is among representatives from numerous federal agencies trying to figure out how the government can fill an estimated 600,000 positions over the next few years.
After falling for two consecutive months, the unemployment rate in the metropolitan region rose to 6.2 percent in May from 5.7 percent in April. The figure, which is not seasonally adjusted, is the highest rate for May since recordkeeping began in 1990. (The Bureau of Labor Statistics revised the April figure from 5.6 percent.)
More than 30,000 regional jobs were lost in the past 12 months. Most sectors -- construction, retail, hospitality, information and transportation -- either continued their job slide or slowed the pace of losses.
The federal government and the contracting industry are among the few sectors in the area creating jobs. For instance, according to the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, the Defense Department is looking for 50,000 contracting and acquisition officers as part of President Obama's plan to reduce outsourcing. The Department of Veterans Affairs is hiring 17,000 doctors, nurses and others to work in VA hospitals as Obama seeks to improve services for veterans. The Social Security Administration, which already has hired 5,800 people this year, is planning to fill 5,500 more positions next year. And the FDA is seeking to fill up to 600 positions, including inspectors and contract officers to staff the new Center for Tobacco Products.
About one-fifth, or about 120,000, of the positions would be in the region, experts said.
"I think the level of attention we're seeing on federal hiring is unprecedented," said John Palguta, vice president for policy at the Partnership for Public Service, which helps the federal government find qualified candidates. Palguta said one-third of federal employees are at or near retirement age, one driver of the hiring boom.
Regional analysts say the unemployment rate rose in May in part because college and high school students flooded the labor force in search for work. So far, the growth in jobs over the last 12 months -- 9,300 in the federal government, 7,600 in health and education, and 7,300 in professional and business services -- is not offsetting losses. Thus, analysts say, the regional unemployment rate could climb to as high as 7 percent next year.
"We need to add more jobs [than the 24,200] to keep unemployment from going up," said Stephen S. Fuller, director of the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University.
Because the newly created jobs require special skills, few people losing jobs will likely find new ones in the government and contracting sectors. "We're not growing jobs fast enough," Fuller said.
While the Obama administration is seeking to reduce outsourcing and bring more jobs in-house, some recruiters said contracting firms have actually increased hiring.
"In the last six to eight months, there's been a fivefold increase" in contracting for the Troubled Assets Relief Program, the Defense Department and transportation road projects, said John P. McCrea, president of Achieve-it, a Reston company that provides contractors to civilian and government agencies. "The people we're placing are telling us they're overwhelmed; we're anticipating it will go up even more."
Meghan Hardy, who worked as an administrative assistant at a law firm, applied for a job as an analyst at the Government Accountability Office and was hired in January.
"In the back of my mind, as the [economic] crisis unfolds and unemployment is getting higher and higher, the federal government is more appealing," Hardy said.
washingtonpost.com |
