1.1 Million Jobs

The New York Times reports that economists believe that the stimulus package might actually be working:

But with roughly a quarter of the stimulus money out the door after nine months, the accumulation of hard data and real-life experience has allowed more dispassionate analysts to reach a consensus that the stimulus package, messy as it is, is working.

The legislation, a variety of economists say, is helping an economy in free fall a year ago to grow again and shed fewer jobs than it otherwise would. This chart summarizes three such forecasts:
As Brad DeLong points out, these figures are from economists who are paid to get it right.
Mark Zandi of Moody's Economy.com sums up the impact:

"In my view, without the stimulus, G.D.P. would still be negative and unemployment would be firmly over 11 percent. And there are a little over 1.1 million more jobs out there as of October than would have been out there without the stimulus."

Alert readers will remember that Zandi was an advisor to John McCain during last year's presidential campaign.