Newspaper: PA lost 1.3% of its jobs in 2008

More evidence that Gov. Ed Rendell's six-year-old policy of handing out large checks to corporations isn't working.

Pennsylvania ranked 20th among states for retaining jobs last year, according to an article the Philadelphia Business Journal.

That's actually an improvement over 2007 when Pennsylvania ranked 36th in job retention, but it still shows that the Rendell idea of stimulating the economy is a bust. The promises of jobs from the companies receiving taxpayer handouts never materializes.

From the Philadelphia Business Journal:

Pennsylvania's nonfarm job count dropped by 76,200 last year to 5.732 million, resulting in 1.31 percent less employment. About 75,000 were lost in the second half of the year. The economic crisis took hold in the fall.

"When you lose as many jobs as we did last year, you have to remember the human story behind the numbers. It is sad for families who are now without a breadwinner, single people who can't make ends meet, or young people who must delay pursuing their career goals," said Christine Tartaglione, D-Philadelphia, the Senate Democratic caucus administrator and chair of the Labor and Industry Committee.

Read the full story, which features two Rendell allies defending the governor's failed policies, at the business journal's Web site.