DES MOINES, Iowa - Iowa's weekly jobless claims are inching upward.
First time claims were unchanged in the last week.
But ongoing claims, which more closely align with the actual unemployment rate, were up by five-and-a-half percent
Iowa's overall monthly unemployment rate remains seventh lowest in the nation - 3.8 percent.
By the numbers, first time weekly jobless claims fell by a miniscule 2, from 3,861 to 3,859, leaving any change too small to calculate. First time claims were up 18 percent in the previous week, and 20 percent the week before.
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 were up by 1,482, from 25,255 to 26,737, reflecting the jump of about 5.5 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.