A new report shows Iowa added 700 jobs last month. Iowa Workforce Development spokesperson Kerry Koonce says it’s the fourth consecutive month of job gains. “We saw some nice growth in manufacturing, where we added 1,400 jobs, and construction, where we added 1,200 jobs,” Koonce said. The professional and businesses services sector also added 500 jobs.
Those gains were offset by losses in leisure and hospitality (down 800 jobs), education and health services (down 600 jobs) and “other services” (down 900). Koonce says it appears Iowa is slowly crawling out of the recession. “Compared to April of 2010, we’re up 7,000 jobs,” Koonce said. “Most of that job growth has been in the last four or five months. Hopefully, we’re seeing a nice trend…where we’ll keep adding several thousand jobs at a time.”
Iowa’s unemployment rate dropped from 6.1 percent in March to 6 percent in April. The U.S. employment rate was 9 percent last month. The number of unemployed Iowans in April fell to 102,000.