Putting its money where its mouth is, Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania announced this past week that its low-interest loan program for job creation, called Citizens Job Bank, is producing results.

About a year after announcing the program, Citizens has so far provided 13 loans amounting to $34 million out of the total Job Bank funding of $100 million.

Though a statewide program, Western Pennsylvania firms were awarded nine of the 13 loans announced to date.

Area recipients of the low-interest loans tied to job creation include: TRACO ($1.25 million to expand its Cranberry location), Penn United Technology ($4 million to create 106 new jobs at its Saxonburg area plant), TCC PennWest ($2.45 million to add close to 100 jobs at its Emlenton operation).

Citizens projects that when the entire $100 million has been loaned out, about 4,000 new jobs will have been created in the state. In a time of continued economic pressures including downsizing and sending manufacturing work offshore, it is encouraging to Citizens actively working to stem the job-loss tide by helping Pennsylvania expand and create jobs.