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Coming off a year that saw the state lose the most payroll jobs since 1991, state officials are working full speed on job creation.

Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) and others last week heralded General Motors's $246 million investment in a transmission plant in White Marsh that is expected to add more than 200 jobs and retain hundreds of existing positions. GM is building a manufacturing facility there that will produce "next-generation" electric drive motors for plug-in electric and hybrid vehicles.

"This team is focused on one thing and one thing only: creating and saving as many jobs for as many Maryland families as we can," O'Malley said.

Last year, employers in Maryland shed some 44,400 jobs, the most in one year since the state lost 65,100 positions in 1991, according to U.S. Department of Labor figures. The 2009 loss came on top of 43,500 jobs shed in 2008.

Every state lost jobs last year, with federal government-rich Washington, D.C., being the only entity to buck the trend. Washington added 6,200 jobs in 2009, a gain of almost 1 percent, but all of the increase was seen in public sector employment. Washington's private sector actually shed 2,400 jobs last year.

Maryland's 1.73 percent job loss last year was lower than the national employment loss of 3.1 percent. But it was still the highest percentage loss since 1991, when payroll jobs declined by 3 percent. In 2008, Maryland's job loss percentage was 1.66 percent.

As bad as it may be in Maryland, the job situation is worse in most other states. The national job loss percentage for 2009 was the highest since 3.4 percent in 1949, according to federal figures. The 4.2 million total was more than in any year since the Labor Department started tracking payroll employment in 1939.

The state's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate, which measures residential employment that includes Maryland residents who work in another state, rose in December to 7.5 percent from 7.3 percent in November. December's rate was the highest in almost 27 years. But Maryland's rate continues to be substantially below the national rate, which was 10 percent in December.

Alexander M. Sanchez, secretary of the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, pointed to the O'Malley administration's proposals for a $3,000 tax credit for each unemployed person an employer hires and to expand loan guarantee programs for small businesses as efforts to spur more job creation in the state. Those measures are under review by the state General Assembly.

"We must continue to do everything we can to create jobs in our state," Sanchez said in a statement.

Job losses in Maryland last year were spread across a number of industries. Construction was down by 31,500 in the past year, while retail declined by 9,300.

Sectors that gained jobs in 2009 included professional, scientific and technical services, 6,800; health care, 5,700; federal government, 4,100; and education, 3,600.

This report originally appeared in The Business Gazette.