Despite job losses, stimulus works, Biden says

"The bottom line is that jobs are being created that would not have been there before," Biden said.

But they are not coming at the pace first estimated. Just 10 days before taking office, Obama's top economic advisers released a report predicting unemployment would remain at 8 percent or below through this year if an economic stimulus plan won congressional approval. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that unemployment in May rose to 9.4 percent.

Biden said the White House is keenly aware of the gap between the rhetoric used to sell fast passage of the legislation and the reality that has 14.5 million people unemployed.

"No one realized how bad the economy was. The projections, in fact, turned out to be worse. But we took the mainstream model as to what we thought - and everyone else thought - the unemployment rate would be," Biden said.

The White House has tapped Biden as its chief spokesman on the economic stimulus plan, sending him across the country to drum up support for a plan that has yet to have the promised impact.