Unemployment rate holds for 12th straight month

DES MOINES — The weather has been unpredictable from hot to cold in the last year — but that’s not the case for the unemployment rate. Iowa

Workforce Development’s Donna Burkett says June keep the run intact. “Twelve consecutive months that the unemployment rate has stayed at 2.4 percent in Iowa,” Burkett says. Burkett says the rate stayed the same despite some job growth.

“Manufacturing has continued to grow and drive Iowa’s economy, and it added 2,000 jobs in June and 2,700 jobs over the last three months. That sector kind of showed a small weakness during the first quarter. We had some loss in durable goods factories, but we’ve seen that coming up,” according to Burkett. “Construction also gained 900 jobs in June — and over the past three months — no sector has added more jobs.”

She says it looks like things have just leveled off without any major changes. “We did see more Iowans in the workplace in June. So, from May to June, we did see an increase of 3,400 jobs,” Burkett says. “So, we are seeing some uptick movement, but it’s not enough to change the unemployment rate. The labor force participation rate increased — it was a slight increase — but it shows more people are entering the labor force. So, that went from 69.2 to 69.4,” She says.

The U.S. unemployment rate increased slightly to 3.7 percent in June.