Iowa’s unemployment rate decreased slightly in October, to 4.1 percent.
“Iowa experienced a slight drop in the unemployment rate in October, despite some layoffs within construction and manufacturing, and really that could indicate this is temporary,” Iowa Workforce Development spokesperson Courtney Greene says.
Iowa’s unemployment rate increased through the months of June, July and August, but held steady in September. Iowa’s unemployment rate remains below the national level of nearly five percent unemployment.
“Fortunately Iowa continues to have jobs available and those affected by layoffs appear to be able to find positions elsewhere,” Greene says.
More than 1.6 million Iowans are working. That’s nearly 13,000 more than at this time a year ago.
“Our economy remains stronger than much of the country,” Greene says.
However, 4,500 jobs were cut from the payrolls of Iowa businesses in October. There were 700 fewer jobs in Iowa’s service sector in October, for services like plumbing and accounting. Nearly 3,000 jobs were pared from state and local governments and 2,200 construction jobs were cut in October. Greene says there were job gains in other sectors of the economy last month.
“Coming out of October, seasonal employment is really starting to heat up in Iowa and things look relatively good,” Greene says.
And while there were layoffs in Iowa’s construction industry last month, a year-to-year comparison shows there are 13 percent more construction jobs in Iowa now compared to this time a year ago. Iowa’s restaurants, hotels and other “hospitality” businesses hired 1,200 new workers in October. Another 1100 people found work in trucking and other Iowa businesses related to trade and transportation.