Statewide Iowa — (RI) — Iowa’s unemployment rate continued trending down into historic lows in August.
Iowa Workforce Development spokesman Cory Kelly says the rate dropped from two-point-six percent in July to two-point-five percent in August.
It has been nearly two decades since the unemployment rate was this low.
The August unemployment rate last year was three percent. Kelly says Hawaii is now the only state that has lower unemployment than Iowa.
North Dakota stayed at two-point-six percent unemployment in August to drop out of the tie with Iowa into third. Hawaii’s unemployment rate is two-point-one percent. Industries that produce and sell goods saw the biggest increase in jobs in August — including a surprise uptick in retail trade.
He says construction continued to produce more jobs than expected.
Kelly says there were a few areas that saw job losses.
The number of unemployed Iowans decreased to 42-thousand-800 in August from 44-thousand in July. The lowest unemployment rate ever recorded in Iowa is two-point-four percent.
