Romney and jobs: you make the call
Posted by Douglas Eisenhart at 10:44 AM

In the wake of Gov. Romney's announcement that he will not seek a second term of office, and after his recent State of the State Address, critics and pundits are dissecting his record - and his prospects - as he moves on.

One big issue is jobs in the Commonwealth - how has he done? On the one hand:

''He made us a promise when he first came in, that he wanted to create jobs here in Massachusetts," [House Speaker Salvatore] DiMasi told reporters after a news conference celebrating new tax incentives for the film industry. ''We need to get the economy back. We want to hear from Romney to find out why we haven't created those jobs."

''When Governor Romney came into office, the state was losing jobs by the thousands every month," said Romney communications director Eric Fehrnstrom. ''Today we are adding jobs, and the unemployment rate is almost a full point lower [than] it was when we took office. But we have more work to do."