Iowa’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 3.6 percent in November, a slight drop from the October revised rate of 3.7 percent. The state’s jobless rate was 2.8 percent one year ago. The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 6.7 percent in November.

“November’s rate remained steady as Iowa’s workforce adjusts to the seasonal shifts we typically see this time of year,” said Director Beth Townsend, Iowa Workforce Development. “While the state’s workforce continues its recovery to pre-pandemic levels, we know there are many Iowans still looking for new employment opportunities. I strongly encourage these job seekers to search over 68,000 job postings on IowaWORKS.gov and the IowaWORKS mobile application.”

The number of unemployed Iowans declined to 57,900 in November – down from 59,900 in October.  The current estimate is 130,100 lower than the Covid-19 peak in April of 188,000 and only 8,500 higher than the year ago level of 49,400. The total number of working Iowans decreased to 1,561,600 in November. This figure is 14,100 lower than October’s number of 1,575,700 and 37,000 higher than April 2020.