Corridor jobless rates fall in October

With job gains spread across a variety of industry sectors, Corridor unemployment rates fell in October despite continuing softness in manufacturing.

Iowa Workforce Development on Tuesday said the Cedar Rapids jobless rate dipped to 3.5 percent last month from 3.8 percent in September.

Nonfarm employment in the metropolitan statistical area in particular rose to 146,000 in October from 144,400 in September.

Educational and health services and government each gained 400 jobs last month to lead all sectors. Professional and business services added 300 jobs from September.

Retail trade also added 300 jobs, contributing to a gain of 500 in trade and transportation.

Only two sectors experienced job losses in October. Information shed 100 jobs, continuing a trend that began in spring of 2015, and leisure and hospitality recorded a seasonal decline of 300 jobs.

The Iowa City unemployment rate edged down to 2.6 percent in October from 2.9 percent the previous month. Nonfarm employment in the Iowa City MSA rose to 103,200 in October from 96,100 in September.

The majority of the jobs gains were in private service-providing sectors, with the exception of government that added 300 jobs. Goods producing sectors pared 100 jobs and leisure and hospitality shed 200 positions in an expected seasonal change.

The Iowa City MSA has added 2,800 jobs from a year ago with gains in nearly every sector. The only exceptions are professional and business services - down 100 jobs - and goods producing, which is unchanged.

Iowa's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate decreased slightly to 4.1 percent in October from 4.2 percent in September. Mike Owen, executive director of the Iowa Policy Project in Iowa City, said job losses in September and October may be setting back Iowa's recent trends of job growth.

'We are seeing conflicting signs from different measures as the number of payroll jobs fell but the unemployment rate fell to 4.1 percent in October,” Owen said in a news release. "The one-month, 4,500 drop in payroll jobs is the third month in 2016 with a drop of 4,000 or more.

'This has held the state to a per-month average job growth of only 1,000, which is below Iowa's slow-growth pace of the last seven years.”

l Comments: (319) 398-8366; george.ford@thegazette.com