ATLANTA --- Stimulus funds have preserved more government jobs than they have created, according to the state's first progress report.

The state has spent $702 million of the $6.5 billion it is expecting from the federal government's special stimulus appropriation, and it has created 11,000 jobs as a result, notes the "section 1512" progress report the state compiled Oct. 15 as required by the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

So far, most of the money, $593 million, has gone toward filling a huge gap in the state's budget left by sagging tax collections. Those stabilization funds have gone to education and public-safety programs, saving nearly 13,000 jobs that might otherwise have been cut. Most of those keeping their jobs are teachers, professors and prison guards.

The balance of the money has gone toward a variety of programs, ranging from health care to community development.

One category of spending likely to generate more new jobs is transportation, including road building and maintenance on mass-transit systems, according to Sid Johnson, director of stimulus accountability for the state. As more money is spent on new transportation projects, contractors will need to hire workers to complete them.

Only 400 transportation jobs have been created, according to a total of the estimates reported by contractors for the Department of Transportation. Mr. Johnson's figures show just 244.

He predicted additional jobs also would be created in a category he calls energy/environmental, mostly funded by grants for installation of energy-saving devices. The category has created 77 jobs as of Oct. 15 after spending $23 million, or roughly $300,000 per job.

Programs for housing and community development created almost as many, 70, for a fraction of the cost, $258,000.

The federal government predicted Georgia would wind up with 106,000 jobs created or preserved from budget cuts, but those estimates assumed that the created jobs would be multiplied by rising employment at suppliers. The state is only accounting for direct jobs.

Economists say judging the actual impact of the stimulus funds is nearly impossible because the connections between cause and effect can't be traced.

"How do you prove somebody didn't get laid off because the stimulus money was available?" said Rajeev Dhawan, director of the Economic Forecasting Center at Georgia State University.

With October marking about one-fifth of the 28 months of stimulus spending, the state seems on pace to have spent about one-fourth of its expected funds, Mr. Johnson said.