Keystone Research Center Says
Recovery Act Has Saved Jobs in PA
HARRISBURG – Since the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was signed into law one year ago today, tens of thousands of jobs have been saved across Pennsylvania, slowing the downward spiral of the worst recession in decades. “Our elected leaders took decisive steps one year ago today to shore up an economy in free fall like no other time since the Great Depression,” said Stephen Herzenberg, Ph.D., an Economist and Executive Director of the Keystone Research Center. “Absent that action, unemployment today could easily be 15% on its way to 20%, and we’d find ourselves in the grips of another Depression.” In Pennsylvania, the success of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is clear. It has preserved 84,000 Pennsylvania jobs, according to a report from the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. Extended unemployment and food stamp benefits have kept Pennsylvanians who lost their jobs from losing everything. Those benefits, coupled with the Making Work Pay tax cut, put money b...