With unemployment skyrocketing and the country recovering slowly from a painful recession, job creation is the catch phrase of the 2010 election. Every candidate, it seems, has a program to put people back to work. California’s gubernatorial candidates, Republican Meg Whitman and Democrat Jerry Brown, each have plans they say will help create jobs. Here’s a look at what each proposes to do. Most proposals would require approval by the Legislature.

JERRY BROWN

Brown’s jobs plan to date is focused solely on investing in renewable energy technology with the goal of creating 20,000 megawatts of renewable electricity by 2020. (1 MWh of energy can power 1,000 homes for one hour.) He says the plan would create at least 500,000 new jobs and put California “at the forefront” of the industry.

He has no position on tax cuts and says he would approve a tax increase only if voters signed off. He has said little about reducing the state work force but criticized state government as “constipated and overloaded,” and noted that balancing the budget would require “a lot of cuts.”

MEG WHITMAN

Whitman’s plan has two main components: targeted tax cuts she says would spur job-creating economic activity – despite the loss of billions in tax revenues – and loosening state regulation of business.

She has ruled out tax increases and advocates a 40,000-job reduction in the state work force through attrition. She has advocated a go-slow approach on public works bonds to create jobs, suggesting that the state pay down its current bond debt before approving new borrowing.

See Brown’s and Whitman’s plans for the State of California here: How state’s candidates for governor propose to fix job shortage