Pointing fingers over idle hands.

• Author: Mooneyham, Scott
• Position: CAPITALGOODS

In this down economy, politicians on both the left and right have tried to sell themselves to constituents as being all about jobs. In Raleigh, the stage has been set for a pitched battle over just that. But, with the elections looming, it won't have much to do with creating jobs but who gets blamed for the lack of them--specifically, the state's high unemployment and how budget cutting, and the subsequent layoff of government workers, factored into that.

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There's nothing new about jockeying over jobless figures, which analysts use to divine political fortunes. Last summer, when doubting Barack Obama's re-election prospects was the sport of the moment, The New York Times noted that no president since Franklin Roosevelt had won a second term with unemployment over 7.2%. (The newspaper didn't delve too far into history to show that four-termer FDR achieved that feat more than once, the first time with unemployment at 16.6%.) What's new in Raleigh is that Republicans passed a state budget over the objections of a Democratic governor. When legislators overrode Beverly Perdue's veto, it didn't take long for the wailing and gnashing of teeth to begin. Her office forecast losses of thousands of state and local government jobs, pointing a finger at the Republican-penned budget cuts. By November, Republicans were wagging their own fingers, citing numbers from Perdue's budget office that put state-employee layoffs at 1,629, which GOP budget writers said was necessary to close a $2.5 billion gap.

"The wild allegation had been that 30,000 jobs were affected," says Sen. Richard Stevens, the Cary Republican who was that chamber's chief budget writer. "That was never the intention" Intent or not, critics responded that the budget office's tally didn't take into account teachers and other local-government employees that were laid off because of discretionary cuts imposed by the state. Just before the holidays, House Speaker Thom Tillis warned that he planned to revisit the extent of those layoffs and make local school superintendents account for their spending and explain why any teachers were let go. Apparently the $460 million cut to public schools isn't explanation enough.

This squabbling comes as North Carolina's overall employment figure, as do so many of its residents, needs some work. Since Perdue took office in 2009, the state unemployment rate has never been more than a decimal point or two below 10%. The numbers aren't...