THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2001 — The Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University has found that job loss in the Commonwealth has come at a faster rate than in most other states — a fact reported on the front page of the Boston Globe. And the Beacon Hill Institute for Public Policy Research at Suffolk University, a local conservative think tank, can tell you whom to blame: the state’s hack politicians.

That’s the subtle message behind the Institute’s new "State Competitiveness Report 2001." The study finds that despite the recent job losses, Massachusetts is the second-most-competitive state in the nation (with "competitiveness" defined as the ability to sustain high per capita income). "Massachusetts owes its high overall ranking to its strength in human resources, technology and finance, in each of which it ranks 1st," the Beacon Hill Institute stated. "It misses a 1st place overall ranking [which went to Delaware] because of a very poor ranking (47th) for government policy." The Beacon Hill Institute created a competitiveness index for all 50 states, and then surveyed "business executives, public servants, academics and opinion leaders" in Massachusetts and seven other states. Survey respondents had mixed reviews of the Commonwealth.

"While they indicated that they perceive the state to have a high availability of skilled labor, they also see that labor as both expensive and highly unionized," Beacon Hill reported.

Beacon Hill may well be correct that the, er, somewhat irrational workings of the state legislature hold back the Bay State’s economic competitiveness. But with Northeastern and others reporting on such high job losses now — which undoubtedly affect the state’s poorest residents — it seems unwise to perform a wholesale cut-back in state human services at a time when they are needed the most. Indeed, one of Governor Jane Swift’s shining moments recently — and one that will serve her well politically — was her call to restore the social services slashed by House Speaker Tom Finneran.

But it’s hard to argue that it wouldn’t help Massachusetts to bring some of its seemingly limitless government costs — such as the $14 billion-plus Big Dig — under control. And, sadly, that number-two competitiveness rating doesn’t help all those unemployed high-tech workers.