Workforce Development office in Des Moines.
There was a slight uptick in Iowa’s unemployment rate last month. Iowa Workforce Development spokesperson Kerry Koonce says it’s the first increase in 10 months.
The unemployment rate climbed to 5.2% in June – up from 5.1% in May, but down from 6% one year ago. The national unemployment rate in June stood at 8.2%.
Koonce says Iowa’s slight unemployment rate increase in June was caused in large part by a seasonal drop of 3,100 jobs in education.
“A lot of school systems ended (classes) in May this year instead of the typical June, so they show a large drop in numbers in June,” Koonce said.
The biggest cuts in the private sector came in construction, which shed 2,300 jobs last month. Professional and business services led the month’s job growth with a gain of 3,000 jobs. “A lot of that falls into the administrative area, which tend to be a lot of temporary help. Businesses will hire temporary help and see how that goes for a while before they move into hiring full time workers,” Koonce said.
Manufacturing posted a gain of 1,500 jobs in June and over the past year has added 11,900 jobs. “Manufacturing has continued to grow for quite some time now,” Koonce said. “The goods producing industries within manufacturing and construction – those amount to four out of every five jobs we’ve added in Iowa since last June.”
The number of unemployed Iowans rose slightly to 85,600 in June from 85,000 in May. The number of employed Iowans in June stood at 1,573,400. That marked a drop of 4,600 from May, but an increase of 12,900 compared to June 2011.