Iowans are not only hard-working…a lot of them are working at more than one job. Labor analyst Michael Msuya says two years ago, Iowa was eleventh in the nation for number of workers holding two jobs. In 1999 that was 8-point-four percent of our workforce, and we moved up in 2000 to tenth place, with 8-point-five percent. While there’s no clue in the data why a worker would be holding a second job, the labor-market research economist says it’s clear that most two-job workers are in the Midwest.He says of the top ten states, eight are Midwestern, all but Vermont and Hawaii. Nebraska’s the number-one state for workers holding second jobs, with just over ten-percent of its workers bringing home two paychecks. Iowa’s eight-and-a-half percent is a recent high…the highest is our current level, it’s been five and-a-half percent this decade on average, with a low of 4.7 in 1998. Msuya reviewed census data on working families to get the numbers, but says there aren’t other factors in the reports that would tell if there’s a reason why two-job workers are on the rise. Iowa’s unemployment rate remained unchanged in August at 3.1%, up from a year ago when it was 2.6%.
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