What's new (final  installment)

In latest jobs data, updated U.S. and Ohio total non-farm employment through March 2021. The revised data shows the job market is recovering slowly, with both the nation and Ohio reporting substantial gains in the last month. But overall employment remains depressed. As of March, Ohio is down nearly 300,000 jobs -- 5.32 percent -- compared to January 2020, before the economy collapsed due to the pandemic. Nationwide, there are about 8.1 million fewer jobs -- 5.33 percent -- than reported at the start of last year.

In COVID-19 data,  the Ohio Department of Health has switched to a new methodology to count those who died of COVID-19 in long-term care facilities that is not comparable to earlier data.  The latest data on this site -- released March 10 by the health department -- shows 6,790 dead since March 2020. That's 303 fewer deaths than reported February 25 using the old methodology, despite the expansion of the time period used from April 15, 2020 to March 2020. I've posted a spreadsheet that displays the wide differences at the county level: Summit County saw the biggest drop in the number of deaths, 87. Cuyahoga has the largest increase, 64.  The percent change among the counties was even greater, ranging from a 64 percent decrease (Lawrence) to a 600 percent increase (Guernsey). These changes followed the health department's decision to adopt the CDC's Electronic Death Reporting System as the sole source of data. But that doesn't explain the large reduction in total deaths and wide variation among the counties.  Until officials answer these questions, I don't see how any valid time analysis can be done.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    --David Knox