The government's formula attempts to look at indirect job creation that stem from direct awards, but Balsam has questions about way the government is reporting its data. The U.S. job creation claims is not based on actual contract awards, said Balsam. "Only 25% of that [stimulus] money has actually left Washington," he said.

That may help explain why newspapers such as the that that U.S. claims that 10,000 jobs were saved or created in Wisconsin "rife with errors, double counting and inflated numbers based more on satisfying federal formulas than creating real jobs."

The newspaper came to this conclusion after looking at some of the local job creation reports. Other newspapers are turning up similar findings after examining local project spending.