Initial Unemployment Claims Cut in Half from Last Week as State Reopens

June 4, 2020

Iowa Workforce Development (IWD) announced there were 6,920 initial unemployment claims filed by individuals for the week of May 24-30. That number is approximately half of what it was for the previous week. It is a positive sign people are beginning to get back to work as Gov. Reynolds continues to reopen businesses. There was $51 million paid out of the unemployment trust fund for the same week. The number of continuing weekly unemployment claims was 165,195, which is down by about 15,000 from last week. The top sectors that saw the most initial claims filed included manufacturing (1,897); health care and social assistance (784); and those not identified by industry including the self-employed, independent contractors, etc. (553). Read IWD's news release.