INDIANAPOLIS | State government has officially spent $781.2 million in federal stimulus money to support the equivalent of 16,310 jobs between Feb. 17 and Sept. 30.

Those numbers are about the same as preliminary data released by the Indiana Office of Management and Budget earlier this month.

The state's official report to the White House was released on Friday.

Few actual new jobs were created at the state level using stimulus money during this first reporting period.

Officials took the bulk of the stimulus cash -- some $610 million -- and substituted it for regular payments state government would have made to Indiana's schools over the summer.

That freed up those state funds to help balance Indiana's $28.5 billion budget.

A federal formula determined that the education grants supported 13,232 workers, even though most of those people were already employed at schools.

About $11 million in stimulus money created part-time work between May and September for 1,950 teens and young adults in the Young Hoosier Conservation Corps.

Workers in the YHCC spent the summer improving trails, planting trees, and painting and repairing buildings in Indiana state parks, including Indiana Dunes State Park on Lake Michigan.

Overall, Indiana has been awarded nearly $2.4 billion in stimulus grants, even though it has only received about one-third of that amount.

The complexity of the federal spending process had led to the slow distribution of the funds, said OMB's Cris Johnston, a Crown Point native.

But Indiana is spending the money as fast as it gets it and has spent nearly every stimulus dollar it has received, Johnston said earlier this month.

The funding and job-equivalency totals only count stimulus money that has been routed through state government.

Grants given directly to cities or individuals, such as extended unemployment benefits or auto and housing tax credits, are not included in these totals.

The next state stimulus report, expected in January, will detail stimulus spending for the rest of 2009.