Northwest Iowa — The state unemployment level dropped to two-point-eight percent in December from the two-point-nine recorded in November. And unemployment in our area remains low. Iowa Workforce Development spokesman Cory Kelly says it has been some time since the state level was this low.
The unemployment rate was three-point-five percent one year ago in December. Workforce Development figures show the number of unemployed Iowans dropped to 47-thousand.
He says with unemployment this low, employers can have a hard time finding qualified workers.
One industry in particular helped push down the unemployment numbers.
Meanwhile, northwest Iowa continues to have some of the lowest unemployment numbers in the state. The non-seasonally-adjusted unemployment in Lyon County for December was only 1.7 percent. That’s tied for second for the lowest unemployment of all Iowa counties. Story County has lower unemployment at just 1.5 percent, and Lyon County is tied with Adams County in southwest Iowa. The number is up slightly from November when it was at 1.3 percent in Lyon County.
In Sioux County, unemployment is just one-tenth of a percent higher at 1.8 percent. Dallas County in central Iowa and Mitchel County in the northeast are tied with Sioux County. In November, Sioux and Lyon Counties tied at 1.3 percent.
Osceola County unemployment is at 2.2 percent, and O’Brien is at 2.3 percent unemployment. Those are up from the November figures of 1.6 percent in Osceola County and 1.8 percent in O’Brien County.
To clarify, the county unemployment numbers are not seasonally-adjusted, meaning that some employers routinely lay off employees in the winter. These employees can collect unemployment while they’re not needed and will probably resume work in the spring, so that does skew the numbers somewhat.
