DES MOINES, Iowa - Weekly jobless claims are down in Iowa.
First time claims have dropped for the first time in several weeks, while ongoing claims continue a downward trend with a drop of five percent.
The ongoing claims are in line with Iowa's overall unemployment rate, which is tied for sixth lowest in the country at 3.5 percent.
Iowa's overall unemployment rate remains one of the lowest in the country - 6th lowest at 3.5 percent.
By the numbers, first time weekly jobless claims are down by 252 from 5,750 to 5,498, a drop of about 4 percent. First time claims jumped by 13 percent in the previous week, and increased by almost 24 percent two weeks back.
First time claims can wobble by seemingly wide margins from week to week without greatly impacting overall longer range numbers.
Ongoing claims for the most recent week are down by 1,980 from 40,145 to 38,165, reflecting the drop of roughly 5 percent. Ongoing claims dropped by 8 percent in the previous week
Ongoing claims reached a peak in the early stages of the pandemic of more than 191,000 in late May of 2020.