Unemployment continues to hold steady in Iowa

State labor officials say Iowa’s unemployment numbers are holding steady and are well below the national figures. Sha Khan, a labor market analyst with Iowa Workforce Development, says the state jobless rate was two-point-eight percent for June. That’s the same as in May and is one-tenth of a point above the state rate from a year ago. The national unemployment rate is four-and-a-half percent. Khan says some of the Iowa numbers don’t seem quite right this time around, given all of the bad news from big employers lately.The people who’ve been laid off are getting severance packages and aren’t showing up yet on the jobless rates. Khan explains where the various parts of Iowa’s economy saw the best boosts in employment levels for the new report. Government employment saw the largest decrease, while construction jobs increased as a labor dispute came to an end.In all, one million 518-thousand Iowans were employed during June. There were 44-thousand-400 jobless. While Iowa’s at two-point-eight percent unemployment for June, that’s not far above the record low set in April of 1999 at two-point-four percent, which was tied in November of ’99 as well.