The monthly unemployment rate for the Western Iowa Advantage Region in January 2016 decreased just a tick from 4.6% recorded in 2015 to 4.5% during the same time period. The figures were released earlier this week from Iowa Workforce Development which tracks various economic indicators, including employment trends across the seven counties in the region. The state of Iowa’s unemployment rate decreased as a whole to 3.5% in January of 2016 from a revised 4.2% during the same time last year.
The month’s state unemployment rate is lower than most counties in the region including Adair at 4.2%, Audubon at 5.0%, Crawford at 6.9%, Guthrie at 4.8%, and Sac County at 4.3%. Two counties which are barely higher than the state average are Greene County, at 3.6%, and Ida County, at 3.7%; Carroll County’s unemployment rate is lower than the state at 3.0%. The U.S. unemployment rate is currently figured at 4.9% overall. A total number of employed workers in the Western Iowa Advantage Region did decrease slightly from 38,400 during the month of January in 2016 from 46,080 in January of last year.
