(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s unemployment rate held steady at three-point-four percent in February. Iowa Workforce Development director Beth Townsend says there are some signs of tightening in sections of the economy. “Employers shed about 44-hundred jobs between January and February, and our labor force participation decreased a tenth of a point,” she says. Townsend says there are also positives in the job market.
“We have almost nine-thousand more workers in our labor force than we did a year ago at the same time. And the number of unemployed declined in February from a year ago, so those are both good signs,” Townsend says. The labor force participation rate had been moving up slowly, and she says this drop is not a major concern.
“It’s only tenth of a point, so I don’t know that you can read anything into it. And looking year over year, we have 11-thousand-800 more Iowans with jobs than we did in February of 2025. So that’s a good sign,” she says. Townsend says the unemployment insurance claim numbers are another indicator of what’s happening in the job market.
“I mean, we’re down almost 19 percent from where we were a year ago at the same time. Our continued claims are down nine percent from where they were a year ago,” Townsend says. “Fewer people are drawing unemployment, which is a good indication that more people are able to find jobs or find jobs faster when they do become unemployed, which is a good sign.”
Townsend says the average duration someone is on unemployment remains less than ten weeks. She says there are more than 51-thousand jobs available on IowaWorks.gov. The he U-S unemployment rate increased to four-point-four percent(4.4%) in February.
