HARRISBURG — Democrats on Wednesday heaped criticism on Republican Gov. Tom Corbett for suggesting that too many residents remain unemployed because they cannot pass drug tests, while his business allies said he was only pointing out a problem that employers have repeatedly cited as serious.

The furor over Corbett’s comment was a reminder that the 2014 Democratic gubernatorial campaign is already under way and echoed the outcry over his suggestion during the 2010 campaign that some Pennsylvania residents receiving unemployment compensation would rather collect those checks than go back to work.

Corbett, in discussing his administration’s efforts to create jobs in an interview posted on PAMatters.com on Monday, cited anecdotal evidence that the drug testing issue is part of the reason the state’s March unemployment rate was 7.9 percent, down slightly from February but still more than the 7.6 percent national rate.

“There are many employers that say, ‘We’re looking for people, but we can’t find anybody that has passed a drug test in a lot of them,”’ Corbett said. “And that’s a concern for me because we’re having a serious problem with that.”

Democrats seized the opportunity to portray Corbett as out of touch with people who are looking for work and to take him to task over cuts in state aid to public schools in 2011 and his ongoing refusal to accept an expansion of the state’s Medicaid program the federal government would underwrite initially.

“I’ve never seen an elected official who comes across as simply not caring more than this governor,” state Democratic Party Chairman Jim Burn said in a teleconference with reporters.