The national unemployment rate fell to 7.8 percent in September — down from 8.1 percent from August. Nonfarm jobs nationally rose by 114,000 with gains in areas like health care, transportation and warehousing.[1]
Iowa’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate has been averaging two to three percentage points lower than the national average pretty much all through the Great Recession and recovery. It is good to see this gap beginning to close.
However, in August, the Iowa unemployment rate increased to 5.5 percent, worse than July, but better than a year ago when the rate was at 6.0 percent. Iowa Workforce Development[2] cites seasonal job losses, effects of drought conditions, a global economic slowdown, and the national uncertainty surrounding taxes and expenditure cuts as factors that are restraining job growth.
We’ll get Iowa’s unemployment data for September later this month. Now that the national unemployment rate is breaking through the 8 percent mark we would hope to see Iowa’s rate fall below 5 percent in the near future.
[1] http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf
[2] http://www.iowaworkforce.org/news/XcNewsPlus.asp?cmd=view&articleid=81
Posted by Heather Gibney, Research Associate
Iowa Policy Points 