DES MOINES, Iowa - Iowa's weekly jobless claims show a mixed bag.
First time claims are down.
But ongoing jobless claims, which more closely track the actual unemployment rate, are up by several percentage points.
Still, Iowa's overall unemployment rate is the eighth the lowest in the country at 3.6 percent.
By the numbers, first time weekly jobless claims are down by 283 from 5,129 to 4,846, a drop of about 5 percent. First time claims were down by 4 percent in the previous week, but increased by13 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 rose by 2,646 from 37,540 to 40,186, reflecting a jump of more than 6 percent. Ongoing claims dropped by 5 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.
Unemployment insurance benefit payments for the week totaled $13,287,062.58.
The following industries had the most claims:
● Industry Not Available - Self-employed, Independent Contractors, etc (988)
● Manufacturing (793)
● Construction (400)
● Retail Trade (377)
● Accommodation & Food Services (359)