Iowa’s unemployment rates are much better than last year, before easement of COVID-19 restrictions, but they rose slightly, by a tenth of a point, in July. Iowa Workforce Development is reporting the rate rose to 4.1 percent from the 4 percent reported in June. One year ago, however, the states’ jobless rate was at 6.1 percent. The number of unemployed Iowans looking for work rose by 800 in July, resulting in labor force participation increasing from 66.6 percent to 66.9 percent. “From May to July we saw an increase of 175 percent in the number of people visiting our IowaWORKS job centers to take active steps towards finding work, and that trend has continued into August,” says Director, Beth Townsend. “As we’ve seen over the past few months, Iowans are re-entering the labor force in increasing numbers, and this shows that we continue to move in the right direction.” Service industries have fueled much of the 7,400 in job gains in July, particularly in leisure and hospitality. Goods-producing industries gained 2,400 workers in robust hiring in manufacturing.
