The U.S. government bailout of General Motors, Chrysler and other automotive firms saved more than 1.4 million jobs, according to the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor.

Most of the jobs — 1.14 million — were saved in 2009 during the worst of the industry's severe downturn, reported The Detroit News. Another 314,400 jobs were saved this year, the center said in a statement Wednesday.

"The government intervention prevented additional personal income losses totaling $71.9 billion for 2009 and $24.6 billion for 2010."

The government will recoup some of the $82 billion spent on the bailout when General Motors Co. launches an initial public stock offering.

The government took a 61 percent stake in GM in exchange for the financial aid.

Former White House car czar Steven Rattner said Monday the failure of GM and Chrysler might have been catastrophic for the entire industry.

A failure of one or two of Detroit's Big Three might have driven many suppliers out of business, putting at risk healthier companies like Ford Motor Co. and the foreign transplants.

In terms of the jobs saved, "we never tried to calculate the number," Rattner told the Automotive Press Association in Detroit.

"But I've thought about it since then and I think we could have seen 2 million or more jobs lost in this country in an instant — many of them here, but not all of them here."