Photo: Iowa Workforce Development
(Undated) -- Iowa's unemployment rate remains unchanged from November to December, 3.1%. The labor force participation rate is also down .1%, but there were lots of positives to take away from Iowa employment in 2022.
"December is a good time to look back at the year in total," says Iowa Workforce Development Director Beth Townsend. "In Iowa we have 34,000 more positions on payroll than we had in December of 2021."
Despite the unemployment rate staying the same and labor force participation being down, Iowa still managed to add 2,400 new jobs last month.
"Health care and social assistance added 1,500 jobs in December," says Townsend. "Professional and businesses services also showed improved in December of 1,100 jobs."
Townsend tells us the drop in workers in December is largly due to seasonal layoffs in construction, which lost 700 jobs.
However, the overall sentiment is positive.
"The good news is that we have 45,600 more Iowans employed at the end of 2022 than we had at the end of 2021," says Townsend. "So we're seeing positive trends in terms of the number of Iowans returning to the workforce."
The full employment report for December can be found at iowalmi.gov.