County jobless rate increases by .5 percent in December 2013

Henry County unemployment increased by a half percentage point in December 2013 to 4.8 percent, according to statistics released this week by Iowa Workforce Development (IWD). The county?s unemployment in November 2013 was 4.3 percent.

IWD lists the county?s workforce at 8,870 employees with 450 of that number classified as unemployed.

Although statewide unemployment fell from 4.3 percent in November 20123 to 4.2 percent in December 2013, nearly all southeast Iowa counties experienced slight increases in the jobless rate.

Following are the unemployment figures for area counties, multi-county micropolitan areas and cities (November figure followed by December figure).

Counties ? Appanoose, 5.8, 6.7; Davis, 5.1, 5.2; Des Moines, 5.1, 5.3; Jefferson, 5.0, 5.2; Keokuk, 3.9, 4.4; Lee, 6.0, 6.2; Louisa, 4.7, 5.0; Muscatine, 4.0, 4.5; Van Buren, 4.5, 5.1; Wapello, 5.5, 5.8; Washington, 3.0, 3.5;

Multi-county micropolitan areas ? Burlington, 5.3, 5.6; Ft. Madison/Keokuk, 5.9, 6.3; Muscatine, 4.1, 4.6;

Cities ? Burlington, 5.6, 5.8; Ottumwa, 5.8, 6.2.

National unemployment in December 2013 was 6.7 percent, a three-tenths of a percentage point decrease from November?s 7.0 percent rate.