Iowa’s January unemployment rate shows growth, officials say

LINCOLN, Neb. (WOWT) - Iowa officials are touting growth in the labor force as the reason for a lower unemployment rate.

According to Iowa Workforce Development, the state’s unemployment rate for January was 3%, down from 3.1% in December. Iowa’s December unemployment was also revised down to 3%.

The last five years of labor force data, from 2018 to 2022, were recently revised due to a required review by the U.S. Department of Labor. Iowa Workforce Development says it’s a process of re-estimating statistics when more complete data become available.

The number of unemployed Iowa residents fell to 51,100 in January, a decrease of 1,200 from December’s revised data.

Officials say there was an increase of 8,300 jobs to start off the year and the state’s labor force participation rate for January was 68.1%, which is close to the highest Iowa has seen since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The significant increases in both the number of Iowans with jobs and the number of people rejoining the labor force are very positive signs,” said Beth Townsend, the Director of Iowa Workforce Development.

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