(Des Moines)– Officials say more Iowans were working in December than in November and a year ago as the state unemployment rate dropped to 6.3 percent.
In a report released Tuesday, Iowa Workforce Development said the December rate was three-tenths of a point under November’s 6.6 percent and two-tenths of a point under November’s 6.6 percent and two-tenths under the 6.5 percent of December 2009.
Total employment hit a seven-month high of nearly 1.57 million in December. The estimated total of unemployed people in Iowa dropped to 106,300 in December.
Workforce Development says the increase in total employment suggests that “the overall trajectory of the statewide economy has improved in recent months.”
Construction lost 2,600 jobs in December, the most among Iowa’s employment sectors. But the department says there are still 400 more construction jobs in Iowa than a year ago.
Locally, Dickinson county posted the highest jobless figures in the region in December at 7.7 percent…up from 6.9 percent in November.
December unemployment rates in other counties in the region included Clay county at 6.0 percent…up from 5.8 percent in November; Emmet county at 6.4 percent…down from 6.8 percent in November; Buena Vista county at 4.9 percent…down slightly from five percent in November; Osceola county at 5.6 percent…up from 5.4 percent in November; O’Brien county at 5.1 percent…up from 4.5 percent in November; and Palo Alto county at 5.1 percent…down slightly from 5.2 percent in November.
(Story from the Associated Press and Iowa Workforce Development).
