PROVIDENCE — The Obama administration reported Thursday that at least 30,383 jobs have been created or saved across the nation as a direct result of the federal stimulus package, offering the first tangible job figures since the $787-billion Recovery Act became law eight months ago.

Rhode Island was the beneficiary of six jobs, according to the federal report.

The Ocean State ranked last, even behind Puerto Rico (126 jobs) and the District of Columbia (370 jobs) in the national data, which was limited to federal contracts awarded directly to private and quasi-public agencies, a narrow slice of the employment expected from stimulus spending.

“The numbers are incomplete,” Governor Caricieri’s spokeswoman Amy Kempe said of the six jobs reported on the federal site. “We have no control over those contracts.”

Indeed, the Carcieri administration released separate figures Thursday evening showing an additional 1,700 jobs created or saved in Rhode Island as a direct result of the stimulus. While the governor’s office could not immediately answer detailed questions about where job creation occurred, the state data included several hundred part-time summer jobs for youths, according to Kempe.

“These are preliminary,” she said of the numbers. “There’s every likelihood this will change, and there’s every likelihood that the federal numbers will change.”

The Obama administration, which had promised 3.5 million jobs by the end of next year, warned the public not to make too much of the job data.

“It is too soon to draw any global conclusions from this partial and preliminary data, as it reports on just $16 billion of the $339 billion in Recovery Act efforts before September 30th, but the early indications are quite positive,” said Jared Bernstein, chief economist for Vice President Joe Biden, in a statement. “All signs — from private estimates to this fragmentary data — point to the conclusion that the Recovery Act did indeed create or save about 1 million jobs in its first seven months, a much needed lift in a very difficult period for our economy.”

The stimulus package offered a collection of tax cuts, extended unemployment benefits, and billions of dollars in competitive grants and direct funding to cash-strapped states.

The federal data referred to $7.5 million in contracts earmarked for Rhode Island organizations generally out of the governor’s direct control. So far, the federal government reports that $541,000 of those funds have been issued, producing six jobs.

New England states fared particularly poorly on the federal contracts.

Rhode Island was ranked last, trailing Connecticut (20 jobs), New Hampshire (22), and Vermont (28). Massachusetts finished in the top third with 584 jobs. Colorado was first with 4,695.

Rhode Island’s six new positions included two created by contracts worth $3.88 million awarded to the Quonset Development Corporation for road construction and another $3 million to the State of Rhode Island for “river ecosystem restoration” in Wakefield.

The Burrillville Housing Authority created three jobs by spending $142,823 to “replace roadways, sidewalks and curbings.” And another job was spawned by a contract worth $43,905 to the Boston firm, Bargmann Hendrie & Archetype, Inc. “to assist with the administration of a construction contract for re-roofing and masonry repairs at the U.S. courthouse in Providence.”

The majority of Rhode Island’s stimulus-related jobs, however, are expected to come from a pool of $1.1 billion largely funneled through state agencies.

The governor’s office reported spending $328 million as of the beginning of the month, including $14.8 million on infrastructure projects.

Ultimately, Rhode Island’s congressional delegation, led by U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, said the day after the stimulus was signed that at least 12,000 jobs would be created or saved in Rhode Island over the life of the stimulus.

“Everyone has to continue to focus on generating more jobs in Rhode Island, but this [federal] report is an incomplete and misleading snapshot that only takes into account a small portion of federal contract data,” said Reed spokesman Chip Unruh. “In the eight months since the Recovery Act passed, the state has over $465 million in Recovery funding in its possession and will issue a report on Friday detailing how it has spent that money to save and create jobs.”

Job reporting is not an exact science, however.

The numbers released Thursday reflect the number of “full-time equivalents,” which does not mean the number of actual people employed. They simply reflect the overall numbers of hours worked on each project –– as reported by the agency or contractor –– divided by the number of hours in an average work week.

For example, two half-time workers would constitute one FTE. Or one person on a busy week working double time would constitute two FTEs.

There’s no indication whether the jobs included health benefits.

Reed’s office noted Thursday that job losses have been slowing in recent months. Rhode Island’s unemployment rate, however, stands at 13 percent, the highest since the federal government began keeping track in 1976.

speoples@projo.com