PD DOES A GOOD JOB ON JOBS TODAY: Alison Grant's long article on Ohio employment in this morning's Plain Dealer ("Want answers on jobs? Study patterns, not rhetoric") is several cuts above the paper's norm. Grant (along with her editor) deserves a lot of credit for a thorough, careful, ambitious piece on a really difficult subject.

How many local reporters, for example, try to explain to general readers how Ohio's manufacturing workforce is shrinking partly because our workers are so productive? And omigosh -- the story actually reveals that

...new claims for unemployment insurance [show] the state still flashing a recessionary signal. Ohio had more than 12,000 new claims during the first week of May. A more normal figure for this time of year would be about 7,000.

... a fact that George Zeller of CEOGC has been trying to get into the PD for months.

If the PD's going to make "Ohio jobs and the election" an ongoing beat, I'm rooting for Grant to get the assignment.

...AND THERE'S MORE: Steve Talbott writes that "Education may be the impetus for innovation we need"...

If the future is about no longer depending on the Big Three for our economic well-being but, rather, relying on the ingenuity of our highly educated work force, Ohio is not making the grade. We need to become innovators again.

Perhaps even more astonishing, two-year community and technical colleges accounted for just 47 percent of the state's postsecondary enrollment - compared to a 60 percent average nationally. Two-year schools are powerhouses of opportunity for kids coming out of high school and for workers who need to retrain. But even though we need them more, we're using them less.

The good news is that the goal is within our grasp. All we need to do is become obsessive about education, college education.

Yes! Send Cleveland to college!