Iowa unemployment is below national average

    Iowa?s unemployment rate rose in the month of April but is still a few points below the national average, according to a press release published last week from Iowa Workforce Development. Iowa?s unemployment rate was 6.9 percent for April, slightly above March?s 6.8 percent rate and well above the rate in April 2009, when it was 5.5 percent. The U.S. unemployment rate for April was 9.9 percent, up a whole percentage point from April 2009 when it was 8.9 percent.

    Brenda Dodge is the Iowa Workforce Development manager for the Iowa City and Washington offices, and she said that she sees fewer people in her office now than three or four months ago. She said that, despite the poor unemployment numbers, she has seen more job listings.

    Dodge said that one factor that can make the unemployment rate misleading is that it only counts people who are unemployed but looking for work. People who are not looking for work are not counted among the unemployed. She said that one reason the unemployment rate may be higher is that more people have begun to look for work who were not looking before.

    Iowa Workforce Development sees many more people in the late fall and over the winter because that is when many seasonal workers are laid off, said Dodge. She said that construction workers are among those she sees that time of year.

    ?When the weather hits, concrete makers are laid off,? said Dodge.

    Workers who have been laid off from their jobs visit Iowa Workforce Development, which handles unemployment insurance claims. Dodge said Iowa Workforce Development is also responsible for collecting unemployment taxes from employers, handling trust funds and adjudicating claims.

For the full story, see the May 28 edition of The Washington Evening Journal