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DES MOINES, Iowa -- Iowa's unemployment rate drops for another month.
Iowa Workforce Development says July's jobless rate is 2.5 percent--down from June's 2.6 percent.
"The lower the rate, the more people are in the workforce. We're back to the lowest rate since May of 2019--we're trending in the right direction," says Iowa Workforce Development Director Beth Townsend.
She says the number of unemployed Iowans decreased last month to 43,300--down from 43,900 the month before.
Townsend says Iowa's labor participation rate held steady at just under 68 percent--the same as in June.
"We really want to get those numbers back up regardless of what the unemployment rate is--we'd like to see the participation rate move back to 70 percent," she says.
Workforce Development says Iowa's leisure, hospitality, hotels, and food service sectors combined to add more than 10,000 jobs in the past year.
"That's also a good indication that our small businesses are doing well, because a lot of retail and hospitality are small business owners," Townsend says.
The State of Iowa has added 33,900 jobs over the past 12 months.
The national unemployment for July is 3.5 percent.