A new survey of leading economists this week predicted that President Obama’s jobs plan could help prevent a 2012 recession. The $447 billion American Jobs Act would boost gross domestic product by 0.6 percent and add or maintain 275,000 jobs in 2012, according to the Bloomberg survey of 34 economists. The bill, economists said, would slightly reduce the jobless rate next year by 0.2 percent. The unemployment rate has held near 9 percent since April 2009. The plan “prevents a contraction of the economy in the first quarter” of next year, said economist John Herrmann of State Street Global Markets LLC in Boston.
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