The total unemployment rate for the eight-county Western Iowa Advantage Region dropped to 3.4 percent in December 2016 from 3.6 percent recorded in the same time period of 2015. Every single county in the region also recorded an increase for the month of December compared to November 2016 rates. Carroll County saw only a slight increase, moving from 2.2 to 2.3 percent, while Crawford County saw the biggest jump from a 4.4 percent rating in November to 5.8 percent in December. Three counties went up by .7 percent, with Audubon moving from 2.1 to 2.8 percent, Guthrie from 2.6 to 3.3 percent and Sac County from 2.3 to 3 percent. Rounding out the eight counties, Adair increased .6 percent in the one-month period from 2.2 to 2.8 percent and Ida County saw a .5 percent increase moving from 2 to 2.5 percent. Western Iowa Advantage tracks various economic indicators, including employee trends as reported by Iowa Workforce Development.
