When the S.C. Commerce Department issues its annual reports on jobs and investments, economic development officials and government leaders often cite the totals to show progress in encouraging companies to put buildings, equipment and jobs in the state.

The reports, required by the S.C. Legislature, include most major economic development projects that list how much money companies say they plan to invest and the jobs they plan to create.

But the numbers are often wrong, for reasons ranging from wishful thinking to economic reality to math errors.

This newest report states that the Commerce Department helped 105 companies in 2004 that planned to spend $2.76 billion and create 13,491 jobs. Last year’s plans rose from $1.1 billion in investments and 8,700 jobs planned in 2003.

The investment numbers for 2004 are overstated by at least $100 million because of an error in reporting an investment by Eastman Chemical at its Voridian plant in Calhoun County.

The numbers also reflect how S.C. Commerce Department officials choose to count them, and those counting practices tend to change with each governor.

Moreover, the numbers include announcements that are unannounced — confidential projects that boost the total job and investment totals — but are unverifiable by the public.

This year’s total includes confidential projects by 21 companies planning to spend $408 million and create 1,000 jobs.

Under Gov. David Beasley in the 1990s, the department began counting a wider group of projects, and the reported numbers soared above those of his predecessor, Republican Carroll Campbell.

Shortly before Democratic Gov. Jim Hodges lost his bid for re-election, Front Door Communications of Charlotte announced plans to spend $150 million and create 1,600 jobs for a publishing business in Lancaster County. The numbers became part of Commerce’s next report on jobs and investments.

The project never happened, leading to consternation and lawsuits by disappointed Lancaster County officials who had offered economic incentives to the company. Hodges later said he had nothing to do with the announcement, and Commerce Department officials said they also were not involved and gave no incentives to the company.

But the Front Door Communications’ numbers still remain in the department’s database. As recently as two months ago, a Charleston newspaper cited them as among the top 10 job creation projects announced in the state.

As Republican Gov. Mark Sanford came into office, he and Bob Faith, the Charleston businessman he picked to lead the Commerce Department, criticized the counting. They said they would look for new ways to measure the state’s economic progress.

Faith said he has tried to clean up the report by limiting it to projects worked on by Commerce’s recruiters.

On one hand, the reports grossly overcount total jobs and investments because they don’t account for plant closings, layoffs or the constant diminishing of investment values, which accountants record as depreciation.

On the other hand, the reports grossly undercount total economic activity because they don’t include most investments and jobs created by services, especially small companies.

And errors can creep in — such as Voridian.

The report lists Voridian’s plans to build a new manufacturing line for polyester for soft drink bottles as a $200 million investment that will create 50 jobs at the Sandy Run plant in Calhoun County.

Voridian last September said it would invest $100 million for the line, and company officials confirmed last week that those plans have not changed. And while the line will require 50 workers, their hiring within two years will not overcome the loss of about 150 jobs at the site in the past two years.