Oregon Public Broadcasting

More jobs were lost last month than expected, but the Obama administration's economic stimulus package promises to create 600,000 jobs by the end of the summer. Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody's Economy.com, says that without the stimulus, the numbers would be worse.

More jobs were lost last month than expected, but the Obama administration's economic stimulus package promises to create 600,000 jobs by the end of the summer.

The U.S. has lost 6.5 million jobs since job losses began in December 2007. Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody's Economy.com, says without the stimulus, the numbers would be worse: closer to 7 million jobs lost.

"It's still bad ... but better than the case without the stimulus," Zandi tells Robert Siegel.

Zandi says the results of the stimulus package should be visible in the third and fourth quarters of this year in the form of people spending more money in shopping malls and elsewhere. This, he says, should convince businesses to scale back — but not end — their job cutting.

"I do think that by this time next year, the economy will be on much sounder ground," he says. Copyright 2009 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.