US President Barack Obama's stimulus plan has saved or created at least 650,000 jobs, and probably more than a million, as his Government battles a momentous unemployment crisis, officials said.

New data provides the first solid evidence from employers on job creation spawned by the $US787 billion ($859 billion) Recovery Act passed in February despite stiff opposition from Mr Obama's Republican foes.

The latest measure comes a day after government statistics showed 3.5 per cent GDP growth in the September quarter after a painful year of contraction.

Republicans have accused the administration of making up job creation numbers "out of thin air" to disguise the failure of Mr Obama's economic policies.

Officials say the data, posted on the website of the independent panel overseeing the stimulus measure, shows 650,000 jobs were saved or created up to September 30. Since the survey accounts for only half the spending during that time, officials say the true number of jobs created is more than a million.

The figures "confirm government and private forecasters' estimates that overall Recovery Act spending has created and saved at least 1 million jobs", an administration official said on condition of anonymity.

President Obama has vowed that the economic recovery package would save or create 3.5 million jobs over two years.

The statistics were provided by tens of thousands of state and local governments, private firms and universities and detail how about $US150 billion of $US339 billion has been spent. They related to jobs created on projects such as infrastructure and road works and account for education jobs saved or created with the use of stimulus money.

Unemployment remains a key hurdle to sustained recovery. The latest monthly figures in September pushed the jobless rate to a new 26-year high of 9.8 per cent, with job losses accelerating to 263,000.

Government data on Thursday showed the economy had emerged from the deepest recession in decades, but the White House continues to battle the crushing unemployment figures.

The numbers apply to jobs directly created with Recovery Act funds, but officials say more jobs are created indirectly, for example in the retail sector, when these people spend their wages.

The official release ignited a new row between the White House and its political foes. "What is quite certain is that since the stimulus passed in February, more than 2.6 million American jobs have been lost," the Republican Party said. "The Obama Administration is either living in a fantasy world or using these reports to have a public argument with the facts."

For Republicans, "it is clear that President Obama's stimulus has failed our economy and the American people", it added.

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