New York : The growth of U.S. jobs in August was more than that in the previous two months, a policy think tank said, belying fears over flight of jobs to countries like India on account of business process outsourcing.

As many as 144,000 new jobs were added in the U.S. in August, compared with 73,000 in July and 96,000 in June, according to an analysis by the New York-based think tank, the Economic Policy Institute.

This recovery comes on top of an average 295,000 new jobs created in March, April and May, said the institute in its ‘State of Working America Report.’

The institute, however, noted that that the jobs growth fell short of the Bush administration’s targeted creation of 306,000 new jobs every month, triggered by tax cuts.

The Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) had described this fiscal incentive-induced measure, being implemented since July last year, as “jobs and growth plan” and had said it would create 4.3 million new jobs in 14 months.

“In reality, since the tax cuts took effect, there are 2,668,000 fewer jobs than the administration projected would be created by enactment of its tax cuts,” EPI noted. It added that since the recession began 41 months ago in March 2001, one million jobs had disappeared from the U.S. economy, representing a 0.8 percent contraction.

Quoting the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the report said in every previous recession and job decline since 1939, the number of jobs had fully recovered to above the pre-recession peak within at least 31 months.

It says private sector jobs have fared worse than public sector jobs. Jobs in the private sector dropped by 1.7 million since March 2001, representing a 1.5 percent contraction.

EPI also pointed out that employer-provided health insurance coverage fell between 2002 and 2003, continuing its decline since 2000.

In 2003, 56.4 percent of workers who were employed for at least 20 hours per week and 26 weeks per year received employer-provided health insurance.

This figure was down from 57.3 percent the year before and down by a total of 2.5 percentage points since 2000.

Workers earning lower wages are significantly less likely to have employer-provided health coverage than workers earning higher wages, EPI observed.

In 2003, 77.8 percent of workers in the highest quintile, or one-fifth of the statistical sample, had employer-provided health insurance, the report said.