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(Undated) -- Iowa's labor force participation rate is back to where it was before the coronavirus pandemic. Iowa Workforce Development says Iowa added 2,700 people to the workforce in July, increasing the labor force participation rate to 68.8%. July is the fifth-straight month the labor force participation rate has gone up.
"For most of the key metrics we look at across the board Iowa has either met or surpassed most of those numbers," says Iowa Workforce Development Marketing and Communications Officer Jesse Dougherty. "I think we would probably say things are still not the same as they were three years ago, so we do need to be mindful of that. We are seeing a lot of positives in terms of Iowans that are continuing to enter the labor force, and not only that they're either actively finding jobs or they're actively looking for work."
The bad news, Iowa lost 5,300 jobs in July, lowering total non-farm employment to 1,585,400. Dougherty blames the current state of the economy.
"We're seeing some apprehension from employers on hiring, some of that we expect due to some of the national impacts," says Dougherty. "We've heard about inflation for a long time on the national level and I think we're seeing that plus changing costs of goods and products and projects. So we're seeing that really play out in terms of how that has a lingering impact on the plans of some employers."
Part of last month's job losses were in the leisure and hospitality industry, particularly accommodations and food services, which lost 2,000 jobs. However, there are still over 65,000 job opportunities available in Iowa.
Iowa's unemployment rate held steady in July at 2.7%, same as April, May, and June. The national unemployment rate went down from 3.6% to 3.5% in July. Of the 2,700 people that joined the labor force last month 1,300 found a job and 1,400 are till looking for a job.
"Overall I think what we can rely on here in Iowa like we always have is a strong foundation particularly with that labor force, because our labor force participation as it is last month was in the top five in the country," says Dougherty. "That's really the key to focus on is continuing to help support and grow that active labor pool but also help employers."
The full unemployment report is available here.