This week it was announced that Lawrence Summers, director of the National Economic Council (NEC) and the chief architect behind the stimulus and the government bailouts will be leaving the White House. Summers departure comes just as the president is trying to convince voters that his policies have helped the economy and also days before the stimulus dollars will expire (unless congress votes to extend the funding).
But is Summers’s leaving a sign that the stimulus hasn’t worked, although it claims to have created thousands of subsidized jobs for workers across the country?
Well according to a recent poll of more than 3,200 business professionals across the Beyond.com Network of thousands of niche career sites that asked, “Do you think the stimulus plan has helped to grow the number of jobs?” more than 74 percent said “No.”
We understand that it’s hard to believe in something unless you’re a five year old or you’ve personally witnessed the affects of it, so with a steady unemployment number, how can job seekers be convinced that the stimulus is working?
It’s hard to say and this is nothing new as we touched on this topic back in July—Has The Stimulus Really Saved Millions of Jobs? As we said it may be years before we know the true affects of the stimulus money, but with people being placed between a rock and hard place NOW, how can we expect them to confidently say the stimulus is working.
So with Summers's exit—we can only keep our fingers crossed that his replacement will bring a Main Street perspective that the NEC is currently lacking and give corporations the courage to start hiring again.
