President Barack Obama’s jobs plan could help prevent a 2012 recession, economists said in a new survey.

Obama’s $447 billion American Jobs Act would create thousands of jobs and would expand the economy, economists surveyed by Bloomberg News found, in a report released Wednesday. The plan, they said, would push down the jobless rate in 2012, possibly boosting Obama’s reelection bid with the potential job growth.

The unemployment rate has held near 9 percent or more since April 2009.

The median estimate in the survey of 34 economists shows that Obama’s legislation would likely increase gross domestic product by 0.6 percent and add or keep 275,000 jobs next year. In 2013, his plan would add 13,000 jobs, bringing the total over two years to 288,000 jobs created.

The economists also told Bloomberg that Obama’s plan would lower the unemployment rate by 0.2 percentage points.

One economist said the proposal “prevents a contraction of the economy in the first quarter” of 2012, and will lead “to more retention of workers than net new hires.” But another disagreed and said the plan is “not really going to have anything more than a marginal impact. It’s just maintaining the status quo.”

Obama’s American Jobs Act proposes cutting the payroll tax and includes a mix of infrastructure spending, state aid and jobs programs.

Obama laid out the details of his plan on Sept. 8 before a joint session of Congress and called on members to approve the legislation right away.

Congress received the bill on Sept. 12. Since then, Obama has been traveling around the country seeking to build support for his plan.