According to State House News Service, the Patrick Administration yesterday claimed 23,533 jobs were "created or retained" in Massachusetts. So, how overstated was that claim? SHNS reported that “Administration officials later were unable to provide estimates of how many jobs were created and how many were preserved, or of how many were public-sector jobs and how many were in the private sector. A spokeswoman for stimulus infrastructure czar Jeffrey Simon said the data were not available, saying “Since we weren’t required to have that breakdown, we don’t readily have that breakdown.”
It all sounds a little suspicious to us. Why wouldn’t you have the information available to back up what sounds like a wild guess? The Governor and his administration can make all of the claims they want, but figures don’t lie. And since the Governor has done such a bang up job in the past forecasting job creation, we tend to be hesitant to believe him now. Remember the projected 100,000 jobs in the life sciences industry he predicted would be created during his first term? At last check, only about 1,000 jobs had been created since the $1 billion life sciences bill was signed into law.
When Governor Patrick came into office, unemployment was below 5%, it now stands at close to 9.5%. We know economic times have been tough, but the policies put into place by Governor Patrick have not been conducive to job growth or economic stimulation. In fact, if anything Governor Patrick has done all he can to tax jobs out of the Commonwealth. Below is a chart compiled by the Budget Director in the House Minority Leader’s Office. You will see that more than 110,000 jobs have been lost under Patrick’s leadership, or lack thereof. In fact, notice the job exodus began before the economic crash last year.
Click on chart to enlarge.
