(Radio Iowa) – The number of unemployment claims shot up in the last week. First-time claims were up by nearly 54-hundred in the last week and the number of continuing claims was up 94-hundred. Iowa Workforce Development says the increase in continuing claims was due primarily to construction and manufacturing claims from Thanksgiving week that were filed last week and were not unexpected.

The information from I-W-D says November through February are typically the months for the most unemployment claims driven by seasonal layoffs. The agency says just more than 59 percent of those who filed claims said those claims were not related to COVID-19.