Iowa’s unemployment rate dropped in November to its lowest level since 2008 at 4.4-percent. Katie Hommer of Iowa Workforce Development says that rate is down from the 4.6-percent rate in October. “The momentum really seemed to be picking up in the fourth quarter, some of the uncertainty that we saw in the third quarter seems to be going away. So that’s a really positive sign,” Hommer says.
The number of Iowans working in November moved up about 10,000 from October. “Trade and transportation added about 19-hundred jobs — so they led the sectors for the most job growth for the month,” according to Hommer. “And that gain was fueled by transportation and warehousing, and can be attributable to the temporary gains in package couriers.”
She says the weather allowed the construction industry to continue strong in November. “Construction added 900 jobs this month and is now at a level that we haven’t seen since 2009,” Hommer says. Workforce Development figures show the construction industry added jobs in seven of the last eight months, and the industry is up 3,200 jobs this year. The state lost 1,100 jobs in the education and health services sector.
The 4.4-percent unemployment rate for November is half a percent lower than November of last year. The U.S. jobless rate in November also dropped — hitting seven percent — a five-year low.