Harrisburg – October 19, 2012 — Senate Democratic Leaders today called Pennsylvania’s latest employment report “unfortunate, but not surprising” given the lack of interest in rising unemployment on the part of the Corbett administration.
“It’s a trend that needs to be reversed immediately,” said Senate Democratic Leader Jay Costa. “The national economy and economic picture are improving while Pennsylvania is going in the other direction.”
For the first time in six years, Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate is higher than the national rate, and the state has fallen from seventh to 38th in job creation. The state’s unemployment rate for September was 8.2 percent, well above the national average of 7.8 percent.
“The rest of the nation is showing job gains and economic recovery and Pennsylvania is economically in reverse,” Hughes said. “The administration’s answer is to give tax breaks to wealthy corporations while it cuts programs that train Pennsylvania’s workforce and keep our citizens employed.”
Sen. Christine M. Tartaglione, the Democratic Chair of the Senate Labor and Industry Committee said the jobs trend is disturbing.
“The fact that our unemployment rate is higher than the national average is eye-opening,” she said. “The governor’s lack of comprehensive job and development plans cannot be ignored any longer – we need investment in education, transportation and workforce training programs that will put Pennsylvanians back to work immediately.”
The Democratic leaders called on the Corbett administration to end more than a year of procrastination on transportation and job creation plans and detail to the legislature what he wants in the way of legislation.
“There are plenty of good ideas to create jobs,” Costa said. “When we return to session we should have a detailed transportation and jobs plan from the administration in front of us that has the support of businesses, unions and public officials across the state. Right now, we’re getting only silence from the Corbett administration.”
Among the plans cast into legislation is one from Senate Democrats called “PA Works” which is aimed at creating more than 80,000 new jobs.
PA Works would make use of state resources, leverage private resources and make critical long term capital investments that would create new opportunities for future growth and development.
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