CJ’s Don Carrington digs into the claim that so-called high-speed rail will create 4800 jobs in North Carolina.

Look who invented the ‘job-years’ concept and look who’s defending it:

What has not been specified in all the press releases and official announcements is that the 4,800-job figure is measured in “job-years,” a metric invented by the Obama administration’s transition team to sell the American public on the incoming president’s controversial $787 billion stimulus plan.

…..Until recently, the governor appeared unfamiliar with the job-years concept. During her April 7 press conference on jobs, a Carolina Journal reporter informed her that DOT estimated the rail project would average only 1,200 jobs a year for the four-year duration of the project. When asked whether she was familiar with the method used for estimating the jobs, she said:

“You know, what I’m aware of on rail is that the money would help us do what we need to do in this state, and what we need to do in the country, from my perspective as somebody who’s had a chance to visit other countries and see their transportation system, that we need to focus on some type of transportation possibilities other than cars and buses. If it’s 1,200 or 12,000 in this economy, they are important jobs. I watched the recovery dollars for roads come into North Carolina, and I saw companies go back to work. I saw projects getting built. I’m watching the Yadkin River Bridge with great expectation. And so if the job estimates are right or wrong, the bottom line is it’s jobs for our people.”

Typical big government.