Teachers and construction workers appear to be the biggest winners in jobs created or saved by federal stimulus money that went to Nebraska state agencies.

According to a state report being prepared for the federal government, more than half of the estimated 2,374 jobs reported created or saved through stimulus funds came in those two areas.

Around 1,053 jobs were linked to stimulus funds going to schools through the Nebraska Department of Education.

The Legislature will be sending about $157 million of the federal funds through the state aid formula to public schools -- saving about 656 jobs, based on the report required by the federal government.

Another 368 jobs were saved or created through two other big grants to schools, providing programs for low-income schools and special education.

The state spent federal stimulus funds on 36 road construction projects, creating about 450 jobs during the spring and summer, according to the report.

That construction work took place across the state, and included resurfacing and bridge repair work on several miles of U.S. 34 in Lincoln.

The Department of Correctional Services also reported keeping more than 357 jobs because of stimulus funding.

The Legislature used about $2.6 million in federal stimulus funds this year for budget stabilization. It was earmarked for corrections rather than spread out across state government agencies, explained Gerry Oligmueller, budget director for Gov. Dave Heineman.

That made it easier to track and was an efficient way to use the money for stabilizing the budget, he said.

State agencies spent about $65.5 million in federal stimulus funding through Sept. 30, according to the first quarterly report. They expect to get about $648.2 million eventually.

Other big job-producing areas were the departments of Labor and Environmental Quality.

About $3.9 million in stimulus money paid for a statewide summer youth program, creating about 268 jobs, according to the report.

Teens worked throughout the summer, mostly in nonprofit and government agencies, said Catherine Lang, Department of Labor commissioner.

Loans to about 29 local communities for wastewater treatment plants and improvements in drinking water systems created another 96 jobs, according to information from the state Department of Environmental Quality.

Nebraska's experience is similar to other states, according to preliminary information collected by The Associated Press.

"Based on this information from a handful of states, teachers appear to have benefited most from early spending. That's because the stimulus sent billions of dollars to help stabilize state budgets, sparing what officials said were tens of thousands of teacher layoffs," the AP reported in early October.

Job estimates have become political chips in the debate whether the stimulus was worth its hefty price tag, particularly since many of the jobs created are temporary contract positions, according to the AP.

The Obama administration, bolstered by some economists and anecdotal evidence, has said things would have been far worse without the stimulus, according to the AP.

The Nebraska budget office also has collected the stimulus funding reports sent to the federal government.

National data should be available at the end of this week.

Reach Nancy Hicks at 473-7250 or nhicks@journalstar.com.