Iowa’s unemployment rate inched up again in December. Ann Wagner, a spokesperson for Iowa Workforce Development, says the rate moved from three-point-four percent in November to three-point-five percent in December. Overall, the rate is up a full point from last December. While the unemployment rate continues edging up, the number of people with jobs hit an all-time high in December. Wagner says while there were over one-and-a-half million people with jobs, that figure is a little misleading.She says a liberal definition of who’s employed tends to inflate that number, while the warm weather has led to continued work in the construction trade. The number of people without jobs in December hit a five-year high.There were 56-thousand-600 people without jobs in December, the most since September of 1996. Wagner says Iowa still isn’t suffering as much as other states.The preliminary averages for unemployment for last year are about three-percent, while the national average is about five-point-eight percent. Wagner says Iowa had the sixth lowest unemployment rate in the nation.
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