Iowa’s unemployment rate move up slightly in November, but Kerry Koonce, a spokesperson for Iowa Workforce Development says, that’s a sign that things are getting to a leveling point. Koonce says the rate was 6.7% in November from the October adjusted rate of 6.6%. She says the labor market is showing signs of stabilizing.
Koonce says the tent of a percent increases in unemployment we’ve seen in the last few months is a contrast to the bigger jumps last year. She says we started to see the dramatic jumps in November of last year when the unemployment claims double and Iowa really started to see the recession.
Koonce says this month adds to a longer view of the employment situation that gives a better picture of the economy. Koonce says they look at the changes in the employment rate in quarters and the last couple of months have “started to stabilize” and she says they need to see several more months of that before we see true recovery.
She says there probably won’t be a large change in the jobs picture or recovery until the third quarter of 2010. Koonce says the estimate of unemployed workers rose to 113,100 in November from 112,000 in October.
Koonce says manufacturing and construction have lost the most jobs thus far this year, and of the 35,000 jobs lost in that sector, manufacturing made up the majority of them. Koonce says there was growth in the health services area of 4,400 jobs. She says there has been the annual increase in seasonal holiday jobs for retailers.
Koonce says that is not as high as it was last year, the trade, transportation and utilities was up, but she says much of that was in the wholesale trades. She says when it comes to seasonal retail hiring, there is more competition and many people who are unemployed are taking multiple jobs.
The state’s jobless rate was 4.3%, and the rate off just below seven percent is still better than the national rate, which was 10% in November.