Des Moines, Iowa — The state unemployment rate for May remained at two-point-seven percent.
Iowa Workforce Development director Beth Townsend says job losses were offset by more workers joining the labor force.
The labor force participation rate moved up to 68-point-five percent in May, getting closer to the 69 percent rate before the pandemic. Total non-farm employment did drop by 200 jobs in May, with manufacturing losing 14 hundred jobs.
Townsend says there was one manufacturing area that saw the bulk of the losses.
Retail trade saw a loss of 900 jobs, breaking a string of five consecutive increases that saw 33 hundred jobs added since November. Townsend says there are a lot of positives in the report and they will keep an eye on the retail and manufacturing sectors.
The national unemployment rate rose to three-point-seven percent in May.
The latest county-by-county unemployment numbers are those for the month of April. In our area, Osceola County has the lowest unemployment in the whole state, at 1.4 percent. Sioux County is tied with Ida County for the second-lowest at 1.5 percent. Lyon County is tied for fourth with three other counties at 1.7 percent, and O’Brien County is tied with six other counties for eighth-lowest at 2.1 percent.
