Des Moines, Iowa — Iowa’s unemployment rate increased slightly to 3.9 percent from 3.8 percent in April.
Iowa Workforce Development says the state’s jobless rate was 8.3 percent one year ago. Iowa’s labor force participation rate increased from 66.1% in April to 66.4% in May as the total number of working Iowans increased to 1,584,000 in May. The number of unemployed Iowans and the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased slightly by 1,300 and 0.1 percent respectively. The U.S. unemployment rate decreased to 5.8 percent in May.
Beth Townsend, Director of Iowa Workforce Development says that the positive takeaways from May’s monthly job report are that the number of Iowans in the workforce increased by 6,300; the number of Iowans working increased by 5,000 and claims numbers in May were down significantly from the previous month. She says that while the number of unemployed Iowans ticked up slightly, “the overall trend is positive for Iowa as we see more and more Iowans returning to the workforce.”
This figure was 5,000 higher than April’s number of 1,579,000 and 60,900 higher than May 2020. The number of unemployed Iowans increased to 63,500 in May from 62,200 in April. The current estimate is 1,300 higher than last month and 74,300 lower than a year ago. The labor force participation rate has gradually increased every month this year.
Northwest Iowa continues to have some of the lowest unemployment in the state. Lyon County had the lowest unemployment for May, at 2.1 percent. Sioux and Osceola counties tied for second place at 2.3 percent. Not too far down the page is O’Brien County at 2.9 percent.
