WASHINGTON – The $787 billion stimulus bill approved by Congress earlier this year has saved or created more than 640,000 jobs, including more than 110,000 in California, the White House said Friday.

"It's performing as advertised," said Vice President Joe Biden.

Biden said the stimulus has created an additional 400,000 jobs if one includes harder-to-count jobs resulting from extra economic activity, putting the total at well over 1 million. Most of the jobs were in the construction and education sectors.

Standing at Biden's side, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said his state has saved or created the most jobs. He said teachers and other educators account for more than 62,000 of California's jobs, including those who might have been laid off if not for the federal stimulus money.

"Anyone that criticizes the stimulus money should talk to those 100,000 people that have retained their jobs or gotten jobs because of the stimulus money, especially the 62,000 teachers that have kept their jobs or gotten jobs," he said. "That is an extraordinary accomplishment from the stimulus money."

In a display of bipartisanship orchestrated by the White House, the Republican governor praised the Democratic vice president and thanked the Obama administration for coming to the aid of California. He said the stimulus should not be a partisan issue.

"This is a people's issue," the governor said. "This is a jobs issue."

In a nod to the state's size, Biden introduced Schwarzenegger as "the governor of the country of California" and applauded California and Maryland as two states leading the way in spending and accounting for stimulus money.

With less than half of the stimulus money spent, Biden said the White House is well on its way to reaching the 3.5 million jobs it predicted would be saved or created. And without the stimulus money, Biden said, the economy would not be expanding after enduring the most severe recession since the 1930s.

Not everyone was convinced.

House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio said the stimulus is not working, "and no amount of phony statistics can change that."

He said the president and his economic team promised the stimulus would create jobs immediately, adding, "America has lost more than 3 million jobs since then, and the unemployment rate is nearing double digits."

In using two sets of job numbers, the White House said the 110,185 jobs in California and the 640,329 jobs nationwide were "direct jobs" that can specifically be traced to new spending, such as jobs created by contracts or jobs saved by averted layoffs.

Of those, about 325,000 were in education, and more than 80,000 were in construction.

But the White House said government and private forecasters put the real count at well over 1 million because of all of the spinoff effects caused by the stimulus spending. A teacher who's not laid off is more likely to spend money at the barbershop or grocery store, producing new jobs, or so the theory goes.

As mandated by Congress, the report does not include any jobs generated by tax cuts and direct payments to individuals, such as Pell Grants and unemployment compensation, which were also part of the stimulus.

At the federal level, however, the White House used macroeconomic modeling to determine the total impact of the stimulus. That included the impact of the tax cuts, aid to individuals hurt by the recession, and much of the state fiscal relief included in the stimulus. Using those complex models, the Council of Economic Advisers and private forecasters concluded that the stimulus program has helped to create or retain more than a million jobs nationwide.

Call Rob Hotakainen, McClatchy Washington Bureau, (202) 383-0009.