Des Moines, Iowa — Iowa Workforce Development Director, Beth Townsend says one of the accomplishments of her agency this year has been to help people who lose their job get a new one faster.
Townsend says they can’t point to specific numbers yet, but believe it has helped the state recover from the post-pandemic workforce crisis.
Unemployment did inch up slightly in the last four months — but Townsend says there’s an indicator that people are finding new jobs.
She says the cut in the number of weeks people can draw unemployment benefits that started in July does not figure into the equation yet. Townsend says it looks like by the end the year the state will pay about 260 million dollars in benefits, when that is normally about 400 million dollars.
She says they will continue working in 2023 to get those who haven’t returned to work after dropping out of the job market during the pandemic back into jobs.
