COLUMN: In our opinion

It is a truism in the Patrick administration and among lawmakers that the state needs vigorous economic growth in order to make good on the ambitious health, education and public safety goals set on Beacon Hill. One of the more achievable means toward that end -

The case for reform was made at the Statehouse this week by the Massachusetts chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business. Massachusetts' inordinately high unemployment insurance taxes, state director Bill Vernon said, is one of the state's job growth inhibitors.

At an estimated $652 per employee per year, he said, the cost of unemployment insurance to employers is exceeded only in Alaska and Washington.

The contrast with neighboring states is dramatic. Rhode Island ($542 a year) is next highest in the region, followed by Connecticut ($477), New York ($364), Vermont ($239), Maine ($229) and New Hampshire ($162).

Equally telling are statistics from the federation on unemployment taxes in some of Massachusetts' aggressive competitors for market share in the technology and the knowledge economy, including North Carolina ($323), Texas ($241), Virginia ($184) and Arizona ($114).

Unemployment taxes are only one of the factors businesses consider when they make decisions on where to expand and locate. However, it is a factor that has a disproportionately large impact on job creation. Most jobs are created by small businesses, for which high unemployment taxes are most burdensome.

Massachusetts has being bleeding jobs in manufacturing and other sectors and has been hard-pressed to compete in the biotechnology and biomedical fields, despite the huge advantage it has in its well-established research and medical infrastructure.

Alarmingly, Massachusetts also has been losing population as young people and many mid-career residents follow the jobs to other states.

Serious reforms to bring Massachusetts' system into line with the rest of the country are long overdue. Lawmakers ignore the threat at their peril - and the peril of their constituents.