As graduation approaches each year, many students are often overcome with anxiety and concern about their future. However, this year, graduating students can rest easy as Pennsylvania's job growth continues to rise.

Pennsylvania created about 60,000 new jobs in the last year, and 122,000 new jobs in the past three years, Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry press secretary Barry Ciccocioppo said.

The increase of jobs is most prevalent in education, health care and professional and business services throughout the state except for in the Altoona and Willamsport areas, he said.

Ciccocioppo said 211,000 jobs were created nationally in March alone. He said he believes this number shows that Pennsylvania is keeping up with the rest of the nation and sometimes "outpacing" many of the other states in job growth. "What we are seeing is a major economic investment in Pennsylvania funding and new educational programs," Ciccocioppo said.

Robert Traynham, a spokesman for Sen. Rick Santorum, said he believes the job increase to be beneficial for graduating college students in particular.

"With the economy growing and more jobs being created, it specifically helps college students," Traynham said. "People are always hearing it is hard to find a job, but now with more jobs, it is logical that college students are filling that void."

Penn State economic senior lecturer G. Dirk Mateer said he believes students should look for rate of job growth within their specific communities as opposed to state or nationwide numbers.

"When you aggregate data, it is not always informative," Mateer said. "It does not necessarily represent a specific community where a student is looking to get a job."

Even though the reported job growth has many excited, state Rep. Kerry Benninghoff, R-Bellefonte, questions the statistics.

"I don't agree with the numbers," Benninghoff said. "Often times during elections you will see boosted numbers. But, I do think that one thing we would all agree on is that we are creating enough high-technical jobs and good family-sustaining wage jobs."

Benninghoff said he believes Pennsylvania is not doing a sufficient job in keeping businesses in the state due to high tax rates, lawsuit abuse problems against industries and the high costs to run business. He said he believes this is a reason for graduating college students to not stay in Pennsylvania after graduation.

In 2003, Gov. Ed Rendell created a $2.8 billion economic stimulus plan to improve Pennsylvania's communities and attract new businesses.

Through this program, old, rundown factories would be turned into new businesses in hopes to create more jobs and show people there is an investment to be made in Pennsylvania, Ciccocioppo said.

"People can see what is being done in Pennsylvania and want to come and relocate here," Ciccocioppo said.

Even though there is large job growth, CareerLink Administrator Susan Shields said she does not believe it will last forever.

"Everything is cyclic," Shields said. "We are at the beginning of an upswing, but eventually we will see the other side of the mountain."

Pennsylvania was ranked 15th in the nation for short-term job growth this year, up from last year's rank of 46th.

"This is a major step," Ciccocioppo said. "We are working to continue investments to create new jobs, so we can make short-term job growth into a long running growth."