Iowa February Unemployment Rates

 Iowa’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate decreased to 2.9 percent in February, down from 3.0 percent in January and equal to the rate one year ago. Meanwhile, despite widespread job growth across multiple industries, Iowa’s labor force participation rate ticked down from 67.3 percent in January to 67.2 percent in February as a large concentration of young Iowans left work for education.  The U.S. unemployment rate increased to 3.9 percent in February.  The number of unemployed Iowans decreased to 50,200 in February from 51,100 in January, while the number of working Iowans fell to 1,650,700 in February. The employed figure is 3,000 lower than January and 13,200 lower than one year ago. Iowa establishments added 11,000 jobs in February, raising total nonfarm employment to 1,607,200 jobs. This month’s gain is large historically and more than offsets a loss of 2,600 in January. February’s advancement was propelled by hiring in private services, particularly within recreation and entertainment fields, education and health care, and professional and business services. Total nonfarm employment has gained 19,500 jobs over the year.