COMPTROLLER GENERAL QUESTIONS CLAIM THAT RECOVERY ACT CREATED 8,000 JOBS IN SC

The Obama Administration says that federal stimulus legislation has created more than 8,000 jobs in South Carolina, but state officials disagree.

The numbers, released by the White House Friday, claimed more than 640,000 jobs were created nationally as a result of the Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed in February. The office of State Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom, however, said they question the numbers.

“I don’t know that we will ever have numbers that we have confidence in,” said Eckstrom spokesman R.J. Shealy. “It’s that we don’t have faith in the way the feds are counting the numbers. The process is designed to show a higher number of jobs created than are actually created.”

Eckstrom has been tracking South Carolina’s stimulus spending since Gov. Mark Sanford tasked him with chairing the Stimulus Oversight Task Force.

The comptroller general told The Greenville News that the Commerce Department only reported creating 3,497 jobs, and 2,607 of those were part of a summer youth employment program.

“These would not be permanent well-paying jobs or the kind that are necessary to support families and sustain our economy,” Eckstrom said. “While some of the reported numbers don’t look unreasonable … we’re wary of some of the other job numbers that we’ve been provided.”