Des Moines, Iowa — Iowa’s unemployment rate increased two-tenths of a percent to three-point-one percent in November.
Iowa Workforce Development Director, Beth Townsend says the drop was due to more lost jobs than new people entering the workforce.
Townsend says several sectors saw job losses.
Townsend says there were gains in leisure and hospitality jobs — one of the areas hardest hit in the pandemic — and construction added one-thousand jobs. Townsend says the increase in unemployment is not good news — but the overall outlook for those who are looking for a job remains very positive.
Townsend says Iowa’s labor force participation rate is five-and-a-half points above the national rate — but is an area they want to improve.
While there’s a lot of talk about people who retired during the pandemic — that’s not the most important group that needs attention.
The total number of working Iowans decreased by 34 hundred in November — but remains more than 48 thousand more than one year ago.
The latest county-by-county numbers available are the ones for October. It’s important to remember that these are not seasonally-adjusted so jobs that commonly have winter downtime are not figured in. Unemployment was up for our four-county area between September and October. Sioux County continued to have the lowest unemployment in the state in October, with 1.7 percent unemployment, which is up from 1.4 percent in September. Lyon and Osceola counties were both at 1.8 percent. That’s up from Lyon’s 1.5 percent figure and Osceola’s 1.6 in September. O’Brien County had 1.8 percent unemployment in September, but it rose four-hundredths of a percent in October to 2.2 percent.
