(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch
This story was originally published by Iowa Capital Dispatch and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Iowa labor force participation back to pre-pandemic levels [1]

['Robin Opsahl', 'More From Author', '- August']

Date: 2023-08

Iowa’s labor force participation rate is back to matching pre-pandemic levels, Iowa Workforce Development reported Thursday.

Iowa’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stayed at 2.7% in July, according to the department, the rate it has held since April. While the rate remained stable, more people entered the labor force, with 2,700 new workers joining the job market in July — raising the state’s labor force participation rate to 68.8%.

The July report found the total number of working Iowans increased by 1,300 people in June, and also found the number of unemployed Iowans grew by 1,400 in the same period. Additionally, IWD reported a decrease of 5,300 non-farming jobs in the state in the past month, though Iowa has 14,400 more jobs compared to July 2022.

Beth Townsend, executive director of Iowa Workforce Development, said these changes may be related to national economic struggles. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released data earlier in August showing the consumer price index rose 3.2% from July 2022, slightly below the predicted rate of inflation growth.

“Iowa’s labor force participation increased for the fifth straight month, although we do see signs that some businesses are being cautious with hiring amid prolonged national economic uncertainty,” Townsend said in a statement. “Over 65,000 job opportunities still exist in our state, and Iowa Workforce Development stands ready to help connect Iowans to these great opportunities.”

In Iowa, a significant portion of the job losses have been in “professional and business services,” that saw 2,000 positions cut in the past month, and 6,400 positions cut since July 2022. IWD reported that administrative support and waste management jobs were “fueling much of the decline.” Leisure and hospitality positions also decreased by 2,200 positions since June.

The number of Iowans filing unemployment insurance claims also rose, from 8,250 claims in June to 9,173 in July — an increase of 11.2%. However, IWD found the period of time Iowans claimed unemployment fell to “its lowest level in more than 55 years.”

According to a news release, department data showed unemployment claims lasted for an average of 10.7 weeks in 2022, the state’s lowest figure since claims lasted an average of 9.7 weeks in 1967. The decrease in average time spent claiming benefits came after the Iowa Legislature reduced maximum benefits from 26 to 16 weeks during the 2022 legislative session.

Just over 15% of Iowans claiming unemployment exhausted their benefits in 2022, IWD data found, the lowest rate since 1979 when 13.9% of unemployed workers claimed unemployment for the maximum allotted time.

Iowa’s unemployment rate remains below the national rate of 3.5% reported in July.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/briefs/iowa-labor-force-participation-back-to-pre-pandemic-levels/

Published and (C) by Iowa Capital Dispatch
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND-NC 4.0.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/iowacapitaldispatch/

You are viewing proxied material from magical.fish. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.