Statewide Iowa — Numbers released by Iowa Workforce Development show the state’s unemployment rate stayed the same in January.
Iowa’s unemployment rate held at two-point-four percent and has been at that level since October. The Workforce Development report says the number of Iowans in the workforce is the highest it has been in the history of the state at one million-654-thousand-400. That’s an increase of 32-hundred workers in January.
The report says the education sector added 700 jobs in January, and manufacturing firms added 500. The construction industry did lose 400 jobs in January– the third straight monthly loss — and professional and business services lost 400. But the losses were offset by job gains, and Iowa is tied with New Hampshire for the lowest unemployment in the nation.
Here in our corner of Iowa unemployment stands at two-point-two percent in Osceola County, with Lyon County reporting two-point-three percent, while O’Brien and Sioux Counties each stand at two-point-six percent.
