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According to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute, the current recession is the longest and deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression. Economist Heidi Shierholz says she is often asked if the stimulus package is working.

[Shierholz]: The problem is the stimulus was only ever expected to create between 3 and 4 million jobs and we were down twice that before any stimulus money was even spent.

Shierholz says that as of the month after the stimulus was passed the country had already lost 5.2 million jobs – 15 months into the recession. She explained what is necessary for job creation to keep up with population growth.

[Shierholz]: When you sum the 5.2 million jobs lost plus the 1.9 million we should have added, in march the economy was down 7.1 million jobs. So, in others words, we were down twice the jobs the stimulus was ever expected to create before a dollar of it had been spent.