Unemployment Down Again In Northwest Iowa

Job VacancyDes Moines, Iowa — Unemployment in O’Brien County is down almost half a percent.

The seasonally-unadjusted unemployment figures are now out for February 2017, and the raw numbers are good for northwest Iowa, with unemployment down in all of the four northwestern-most counties. O’Brien County had the most change from the previous month. In January, the county saw 3.4 percent unemployment. But the February report says unemployment in that month was down to 2.9 percent, which was the 15th lowest unemployment by county in Iowa. While the unemployment went down, the county’s ranking actually went down as well due to a number of ties in the top ten. The previous month, O’Brien County had the eighth lowest unemployment in the state.

Elsewhere in northwest Iowa, Lyon County unemployment was unchanged from the previous month, at 2.3 percent. That was good for second place in the state in January, and again in February.

Osceola County unemployment also saw a decrease from 2.8 percent in January to 2.6 percent in February, but their ranking went down from fourth place to seventh.

Sioux County’s unemployment also fell two-tenths of a percent from 3.0 to 2.8 in that time period. 3.0 was good enough for fifth place last time, but 2.8 is only good enough for 12th place this time.

Statewide, unemployment fell for the sixth consecutive month. The statewide records are always a month ahead of the county numbers. Cory Kelly with Iowa Workforce Development says the seasonally-adjusted March unemployment rate fell to three-point-one percent compared to three-point-two percent in February.


The unemployment rate was three-point-eight percent one year ago in March. The business sector did cut 500 jobs — the first cut since November — but Kelly says gains were made in other areas.


Education and health services added 700 jobs and so far have gained jobs for four-consecutive months.

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