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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Report: PA Recovery Stalls; Public-Sector Job Loss to Blame

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Monday, November 28, 2011   

HARRISBURG, Pa. - In the past year, 21,000 public sector jobs in Pennsylvania have been done away with, and a new report says it's been a major factor in a substantial slowdown in the state's economic recovery.

Dr. Mark Price, a labor economist at the Keystone Research Center, says that in the year or so after the recession ended, Pennsylvania ranked fourth among states for the number of jobs created. By contrast, between April and September of this year, Pennsylvania dropped into the bottom ten states for job growth.

"So, you've got this combination of the private sector really struggling to create new jobs, and the public sector engaging in a round of layoffs that really are making the unemployment situation much worse."

He says the fallout from the slowdown now includes services that local governments can no longer afford to offer.

"Essential public services are being cut, primarily because there's not enough tax revenue; and there's not enough tax revenue because the economy's not performing well. So, it really is a Catch-22 for local governments."

The report recommends that the state take some steps to assist troubled cities and counties.

"The state has accumulated a substantial amount of money in revenue surpluses that it could be delivering to local governments to help ease the situation."

Keystone Research would also like to see a natural gas drilling tax enacted, along with school construction and energy-efficiency projects, while both borrowing and construction costs are low.

Price says the implications of both public and private sector slowdowns are evident in Pennsylvania's unemployment rate, which has jumped from 7.4 percent in May to just over eight percent in October.

The report is online at keystoneresearch.org





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