Jobs For Connecticut Now

From Sunday’s Hartford Courant: With the recent announcement that Pratt & Whitney is evaluating whether to relocate 1,000 jobs, some elected officials proclaimed that we must, at all costs, keep well-paying manufacturing jobs in Connecticut. Given that well-paying jobs have been leaving Connecticut for many years, we can only hope that the magnitude of Pratt’s potential loss will produce meaningful and constructive state action to match those words.

Indeed, we must react with a sense of urgency to this latest wake-up call and aggressively address Connecticut’s woeful economic direction. Gov. M. Jodi Rell deserves credit for her efforts to retain the Pratt jobs, but rather than react to announcements of job relocations, our elected officials must establish a climate that causes businesses to retain current jobs and create new ones.

The piece was authored by Oz Griebel, who is president and CEO of the MetroHartford Alliance.