Iowa’s jobless rate was up just a tick this month, a tenth of a percentage point. Ann Wagner is labor-market analyst at the state Workforce development office. Says that’s a tenth of a percent higher than the March rate of four-percent, same as it was one year ago. That 4.1% translates into 68,100 people jobless in the state, up from 65,800 the previous month and 66,000 a year ago. Wagner says the numbers we get aren’t raw data…most often the labor department distributes “seasonally adjusted” jobless figures. When they don’t, the numbers are affected by construction, winter layoffs, school closings, the Christmas retail surge, and those all make figures fluctuate in a recurring pattern. If you remove the seasonal swings, Wagner says you get a clearer idea of the economy is doing.
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