Statewide Iowa (Radio Iowa) — The state unemployment rate dropped for the second straight month in October as Iowa Workforce Development says manufacturing jobs increased.
IWD spokesman Cory Kelly says the rate fell to three-percent — down from three-point-two percent in September.
He says manufacturing gains 22-hundred jobs in October — the second consecutive, and the fifth in the last six months manufacturing jobs have increases. Kelly says most of the manufacturing gains were in nondurable goods.
The trade, transportation, and utilities sectors lost 23-hundred jobs — the most of any sector in October. One-thousand of the job losses came in retail trade. The construction industry snapped a run of losses that started in April with an increase of 500 jobs in October.
He says the construction loses came as several large-scale construction projects in the state were completed. Kelly says the improvement in the manufacturing sector is the highlight of the numbers so far this year.
Iowa Workforce Development says the number of unemployed Iowans decreased to 51-thousand in October. The current estimate is 98-hundred lower than last year at this time. The unemployment rate one year ago in October was three-point-six percent. The U-S unemployment rate in October dropped to four-point-one percent.
