Continuing Unemployment Claims See Significant Drop From Last Week

Iowa Workforce Development (IWD) announced there were 9,505 initial unemployment claims filed by individuals for the week of July 12-18. That number is down by approximately 500 from last week. There was approximately $31.7 million paid out of the state unemployment trust fund, which is about $1.6 million less than the week prior and does not include federal benefits paid. The number of continuing unemployment claims was 116,810, which is about 18,000 claims fewer than last week. The top sectors that saw the most initial claims filed included manufacturing (2,085); those not identified by industry including the self-employed, independent contractors, etc. (1,703); and health care and social assistance (864). Read IWD's news release.