3,200 more Iowans unemployed from previous month

DES MOINES, Iowa (KCRG) - On Thursday, Iowa Workforce Development released their employment statistics in the state, showing that the labor force participation rate has declined from the previous month.

The state’s labor force participation rate decreased from 68.6 percent to 68.4 percent but remains 0.3 percent higher than one year ago. The number of unemployed Iowans increased to 56,000 in October from 52,800 in September.

According to Iowa Workforce Development, the total number of working Iowans decreased to 1,679,900 in October - 8,300 lower than September and 13,600 higher than one year ago.

“As we enter the winter, when we traditionally see higher seasonal unemployment rates, we will most likely see these trends continue. However, there are still almost 65,000 open jobs on IowaWORKS.gov,” said Beth Townsend, Executive Director of Iowa Workforce Development. ”I encourage any Iowan who is impacted by this economic slowdown to look first to IWD for assistance. Our team works every day to connect workers with employers, and we know these efforts are successful as evidenced by Iowa having the shortest average duration for unemployment claims in more than 50 years.”

You can find more information on Iowa’s employment numbers at the link here.