DES MOINES, Iowa - Iowa continues to show a downward trend in weekly jobless claims.
Thursday's release form the U.S Labor Department shows a 7 percent drop in ongoing claims, which tend to align with the actual unemployment rate.
First time claims are also down.
Iowa's overall unemployment rate is tied for fourth lowest in the county at 3.7 percent.
By the numbers, first time weekly jobless claims are down by 580, from 3,955 to 3,375, a drop of about 15 percent. First time claims were down 44 percent in the previous week.
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 fell from 30,532 to 28,451, reflecting the drop of 7 percent.
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 $7,760,594.26, a drop from $8,661,749.66 in the previous week. The following industries had the most claims
- Manufacturing (574)
- Industry Not Available - Self-employed, Independent Contractors, etc. (518)
- Retail Trade (277)
- Construction (269)
- Health Care & Social Assistance (264)