According to a report released last week from Iowa Workforce Development (IWD), Iowa’s months-long trend of decreasing unemployment continued into March. The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment dropped to 3.3 percent in March from February’s 3.5 percent. A year ago, unemployment in Iowa stood at 4.4 percent. The state’s labor participation rate climbed slightly from February, from 67 percent to 67.2 percent. Iowa Workforce Development Director, Beth Townsend, says, “Iowa’s economic recovery has made tremendous strides over the past year, and we’re starting to see real progress as more and more Iowans rejoin the workforce. Iowa has come a long way since the height of the pandemic, but employers continue to need workers. IWD will continue to focus on re-employment and helping jobless Iowans quickly find their way into rewarding new careers.” County-by-county figures are not publicly available yet but will be released later this month by the IWD. The national unemployment rate for March stood at 3.6 percent.
