The new report from Iowa Workforce Development shows a small increase in the state’s unemployment rate for June. Labor market analyst Ann Wagner, says the new figures continue what’s been a trend. The rate is up for the third month in a row, to 3.8% seasonably adjusted for June, up from 3.6% in May, and up slightly also from 3.7% one year ago. Wagner says overall there were 62,500 unemployed Iowans in June.
Wagner says the unemployment increase is due to a new crop of people into the job market. She says the increase is probably due to more graduates who’ve recently gotten out of school and are looking for work. Wagner says any loss of jobs the state is seeing is pretty normal at this point.
Wagner says they aren’t seeing any significant increases in claims for unemployment, but they are seeing some small layoffs in manufacturing related to the construction and auto industry and their related businesses. She says the increase is still nothing to create a concern about.
"We have a state that has relatively low unemployment right now, in fact, we have some areas that have extremely low unemployment," Wagner says, "for example Lyon County was low this month with a low of two-point-seven percent."
Wagner says the outlook continues to be good for workers in the state. Wagner says most of the industries are growing strong and "we really don’t see any signs of major weakness at this time." The national unemployment rate in June was four-point-five percent.