In response to my post yesterday detailing how former GOP governors turned 2012 candidates did at job creation during their tenures, the Romney campaign e-mailed some statistics to put Romney’s 1.6 percent overall job growth rate number into additional context.
Under Romney, unemployment decreased to 4.7 percent from 5.6 percent. The number of jobs — based on the number of those employed — increased by nearly 50,000. That’s more than Romney’s predecessor (Republican Jane Swift, who was governor from April 2001 to January 2003) or successor (Democrat Deval Patrick) can claim; under Swift, Massachussetts lost about 60,000 jobs and under Patrick, who became governor in 2007, the state has lost about 50,000 jobs.
Furthermore, the Romney campaign says that “between January 2003 and December 2006, Massachusetts was one of seventeen states to accelerate its job growth every year (creating more jobs each year than were created the year before), and one of only two states — Illinois being the other — to accelerate its job growth by at least 20,000 jobs each year. Massachusetts was one of the top ten most-improved states (seventh overall) in terms of job creation, going from 49th in the nation in the first year of the Romney Administration to 36th in the nation in the last year.”