Statewide, Iowa — Iowa’s unemployment rate went down again in July, hitting two-point-five percent.
Iowa Workforce Development Director Beth Townsend says it’s another positive jobs report.
July extends the string of months where unemployment has dropped.
Townsend says more people are returning to work that had previously left the workforce, and employers are creating more jobs.
The workforce participation rate held at 67-point-eight percent in July. Townsend says they’d still like to see it up around 69-and-a-half percent, but the number hasn’t been dropping like it did during the pandemic.
Townsend credits their re-employment case management system for helping those who lose their jobs to get back in the workforce.
There are more than 85-thousand jobs still available in the state. Some critics say the jobs don’t pay enough for people to live on. Townsend disagrees.
Townsend says nobody’s working for minimum wage these days. She says historically less than one to two percent of those in the workforce work at the minimum rate and it is to be a rate for individuals at the entry level position.
