Unemployment Rate Plunges in September

Iowa Workforce Development (IWD) announced on Tuesday the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for September fell to 4.7%. That is a 1.3% drop from August where the rate was 6.0%. This is the fifth consecutive month that Iowa’s unemployment rate has declined. Iowa continues to have one of the nation’s lowest unemployment rates as Gov. Reynolds never completely shut the state down like a number of governors did in their respective states. She also acted swiftly to reopen businesses affected by her proclamations at the beginning of summer. The nation’s unemployment rate for last month was 7.9%. You can read IWD's news release.

Additionally, IWD announced there were 4,622 initial unemployment claims filed by individuals for the week of Oct. 11-17. Approximately $11.8 million was paid out of the state unemployment trust fund, which is about $1.1 million less than the week prior. The number of continuing unemployment claims was 41,967, which is a decrease of 4,442 claims from last week. The top sectors that saw the most initial claims filed included manufacturing (946); those not identified by industry including the self-employed, independent contractors, etc. (819); and health care and social assistance (439).