House Minority Leader Bradley H. Jones, Jr. (R-North Reading) issued the following statement today in response to reports that Massachusetts added 30,000 fewer jobs in 2011:“Yet again, Governor Patrick and his Administration are playing games with employment numbers in Massachusetts.
With reports surfacing that Massachusetts had in fact added 30,000 fewer jobs than were touted by the Patrick Administration, we discover that once again the Governor is trying to pull the wool over our eyes.
As usual, the Administration is passing the buck. Of course the misrepresentation of numbers is not their fault, but that of the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics for ‘applying an imprecise methodology that underreported the number of jobs the state actually added last year.’
It is time to stop playing games with numbers and start getting results for the unemployed and underemployed in Massachusetts. According to Governor Patrick, ‘the strategy’s a winning strategy,' which begs the question – what strategy?”
