Northwest Iowa — The number of continuing unemployment claims dropped below 50-thousand last week.
The ongoing unemployment claims were down by nearly five-thousand (4,983) compared to the previous week. Continuing claims have now dropped for 16 straight weeks. The drop comes as new unemployment claims were up slightly to 46-hundred-44. Manufacturing and self-employed workers or independent contractors each saw more than 800 new unemployment claims.
The unemployment rate, while higher due to the pandemic remains the lowest in northwest Iowa. The latest figures available for that metric are those for August. Lyon County had the second-lowest rate in the state at 2.6 percent. Only Mitchell County in northeast Iowa had lower unemployment. Sioux County was next, at 2.8 percent. Osceola reported 3.1 percent unemployment, with O’Brien County reporting 4.0 percent. All northwest Iowa rates were much lower than the state rate, which was 6.0 percent in August.
