Workforce-DevThe state’s unemployment rate dropped in October. Iowa’s Iowa Workforce Development says unemployment dropped down to 4.5 percent in October, that’s the same rate it had held at in July and August before moving up to 4.6-percent in September.

It’s slightly ahead of the October unemployment rate one year ago of 4.4 percent. But IWD says the total number of Iowans working is nearly 35,000 higher than it was one year ago. Nonfarm employment dropped 200 jobs in October, which IWD says was the first drop since March and only the third decline this year. The agency says weaker than expected seasonal hiring in local and state government led to some of the loss.

The U.S. unemployment rate dropped to 5.8 percent in October compared to 5.9 percent in September.