DES MOINES, Iowa - Iowa has the fifth lowest unemployment rate is the country.
New figures from the U.S. Labor Department show five straight months of falling numbers for the state.
“We have over 64,000 job openings across the state," said Director Beth Townsend with the Iowa Workforce Development.
Iowa's jobless rate is 4.7 percent for September, after peaking at 10.2 percent in April. The overall U.S. unemployment rate is 7.9 percent, having fallen from 14.2 percent in April.
Iowa had a pre-pandemic level of 2.8 percent in February, when the national level was 3.8 percent.
The total number of working Iowans increased to 1,536,200 in September. This figure was 11,600 higher than April and 166,300 lower than one year ago.
Neighboring Nebraska (3.5 percent) and South Dakota (4.1 percent) now rank first and second for lowest unemployment rate in the country.