Iowa Unemployment Rate Drops Again

(Radio Iowa)  The state's unemployment rate dropped again in June after holding steady in May.

Iowa Workforce Development spokesman, Ed Wallace.   "We are now at three-point-seven percent, ranking fifth in the United States," Wallace says.

The May unemployment rate was three-point-eight percent and it was the first time in seven months the rate did not drop. The drop in the unemployment rate in June continues moving the state toward what's called "full employment."   "Full employment is considered three-point-five percent, currently at three-point-seven we are very close there," according to Wallace. "Most of the time you have about three percent of the workforce in transition of some kind."

Wallace says there were three-thousand non-farm jobs added in June.   "The numbers tells us that a lot of our fellow Iowans are finding jobs in trade and transportation in the private sector. Additionally, we've had job gains in all quadrants of the state throughout a number of different industries," Wallace says. "Mostly people are staying in positions a little bit longer and we are seeing fewer retirements over the last two quarters."

He says not all sectors of the job market saw gains.  "We've seen some job loss in health services over this past cycle, but we do expect that to recover," Wallace says.

The report says education and health services lost 22-hundred jobs and leisure and hospitality lost 21-hundred after both of the sectors have had strong hiring through the first part of the year. The unemployment rate was four-point-four percent one year ago in June. The U-S unemployment rate dropped to five-point-three percent in June.