About six weeks later, on Sept. 3, Gov. M. Jodi Rell announced the state was offering Pratt $100 million in incentives — $20 million a year for five years — to change course and keep the Cheshire plant and East Hartford business unit open.

But the company’s decision last week to reject that offer — several years after Bayer Corp. in 2006 shunned a $60 million state incentive package and moved its U.S. headquarters from West Haven to New Jersey — has some questioning whether the state does enough to retain businesses.

Tom Mayes, vice president of Pratt & Whitney Commercial Engine & Global Services, in announcing the company’s decision Monday, said the state “made a generous and creative proposal in an unprecedented effort to keep jobs in the state.”

The incentives, however, did not address the main issues the company faces, he said — volume loss amid a declining aerospace market and labor costs. The impacted jobs will be moved to Georgia, Singapore and Japan.

First and foremost, our heart goes out to those families and workers that will be directly impacted by this move. Pratt & Whitney employs some of the brightest and hardest working residents from Connecticut, and there are few words that will comfort them in the days ahead. Thousands upon thousands have already lost a job in the state during this recession, and hearing that a thousand more will join the unemployment line is a shot to the gut. It truly is a sad time for everyone across Connecticut.

If there is a silver lining in this situation, it is that for the first time in a long time, we saw state leaders try and remedy the situation before a final decision was made by Pratt & Whitney. Both policymakers and union officials made a concerted effort to keep these jobs alive with some innovative and creative thinking. The state offered the company $100 million in incentives over a five-year period and the union reportedly offered its own concessions in the multi-millions. Moves like that are uncommon in Connecticut, and despite the decision to move forward with the cuts, we should applaud all those involved for working so hard to try and avoid this tragic situation.

Unfortunately, the move came at the last hour when it was likely too late. And this point, brings us back to the theme of what Jobs for New England Now has been trying to promote since our launch in April. For too long, Connecticut and other states in the region have done little to make the business environment in New England more compelling for job creation and job retention. We have seen too many businesses close their doors and head to other parts of the country, taking important and vital jobs for our residents with them.

NOW is the time when policymakers need to start implementing measures that reward businesses for creating jobs and make the region more attractive to businesses that are on the cutting edge of technology and innovation. We need our policymakers to promote a landscape where companies can be successful and maintain a strong base of employees to make our region richer and help revitalize the communities we live in.

As we said previously, this is an extremely sad day for the state, but we hope that in tragedy comes opportunity. From this day forward, our local policymakers need to realize that the status quo will no longer be acceptable. Both the business community and political community need to come together to find new ways to make this an attractive and affordable landscape where businesses and jobs can flourish for all Connecticut residents to enjoy. The skies above Connecticut have been grey for too long, and NOW is the time for policymakers to take note. NOW is not the time to talk about blame or greed. We must focus on the future and how innovation and investment will bring jobs back to our loyal and deserving workers.

The plan calls for a statewide port authority comprising the harbors in Bridgeport, New Haven and New London, along with the state’s airports, including Bradley International Airport.

It also calls for development of a commuter rail line between New Haven, Hartford and Springfield, with a spur to Bradley. A commuter line along I-91 has long been debated but would cost hundreds of millions of dollars and would face uncertain ridership.

… Critics of the state’s economic development policies, most prominently and consistently University of Connecticut economics professor Fred V. Carstensen, have long said Connecticut does not do enough to nurture targeted industries, and to educate and retain present and future workers.

The full document can be viewed at: www.ct.gov/ecd

It’s a recession, so few things are booming and no city is exactly thriving. But within the tech industry, some cities clearly have more job opportunities than others. Although tech employment overall has suffered along with the rest of the economy, there’s been variance: High-tech manufacturing jobs have been shed more rapidly, while IT service jobs—in engineering and in software services, for instance—have fared better. And one future bright spot: Over the next three years, the federal government is projected to make 11,500 new hires in information technology jobs, according to a report by the Partnership for Public Service.

Boston
Boston has become a hotbed of high-tech innovation in fields such as biotech and software, says Robert Buderi, founder and chief executive of Xconomy. Universities like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University are a powerful draw for employers—and highly fertile ground for start-ups. Last year, when Microsoft opened its first East Coast research lab in nearby Cambridge, the company touted its ability to reach the “large community of scientists in New England, notably the faculty and students at the many premier academic institutions in the vicinity.” The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that programmers and software applications engineers in nearby Lowell, Mass., rank among the highest paid in all U.S. metro areas. Silicon Valley may once have been a necessary career stop, but today, tech workers can spend their entire careers in New England, Buderi says.

Unfortunately, we sometimes forget why Labor day was was originally created. Check out the Department of Labor website and you will see clearly spelled out that “Labor Day was a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.” There’s also some interesting background on the creation of Labor Day, which has been around for more than 100 years.

Which brings us to this point. Despite the recent economic challenges our nation has endured, this Labor Day should be a major reminder to local policymakers that it is even more important than ever to get New England’s residents who have lost their jobs off the unemployment line. Our local policymakers need to do everything possible to encourage investment from businesses in this community and make our environment more attractive for other companies to come to the region. We need to find new incentives that will help bring new business to New England and help keep the doors open of those businesses that already exist here. Labor Day should be about celebrating the jobs we have and the hard work our residents put into them each day. When the nation is experiencing some of the highest unemployment rates in decades, it may be difficult to truly celebrate that meaning of Labor Day this year, but hopefully a year from now we will have a brighter and more optimistic picture to enjoy during the long weekend.

Promoting higher returns on innovation makes the state more appealing for new and existing businesses to make the commitments to local facilities that may provide new jobs and opportunities for residents. Policymakers can provide incentives for businesses to launch new products and services in Connecticut.”

Matthew Nemerson is president and CEO of the Connecticut Technology Council, E-mail: mnemerson@ct.org. Paul Moran is executive director of Jobs for New England Now, E-mail: paul@jobsfornewenglandnow.org.