State of working Iowa recovering, but far from strong

By Iowa City Press-Citizen

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The Iowa Policy Project recently released its annual “State of Working Iowa” report.

The main points of the new study include:

- Iowa's unemployment rate peaked in late 2010 at 6.2 percent. That's nearly 4 percentage points lower than the peak nationally.

- Unfortunately, the rate of underemployment in the state rose to 11.6 percent - that includes Iowans newly without jobs, Iowans who have given up on finding work as well as Iowans who are forced into part-time work because of reduction in hours.

- Even worse, the rate of long-term unemployment (people out of work for six months or more) nearly tripled to more than 33 percent of all unemployed workers.

- Iowa still is facing a jobs deficit. To just get back to the employment levels of early 2008, the state needs 72,600 additional jobs.

- Erasing that 72,600-jobs deficit - while keeping up with the state's population growth - would require 3,000 new jobs be added every month for the next three years.

- On average, the jobs people are finding today are not paying as well as they have in the past. Wages for jobs across all skill levels were lower in inflation-adjusted dollars than they were a decade ago.

- Using 2010 figures, the average annual pay for jobs gained during the recovery was $32,990 - that's nearly $6,000 a year less than the $38,850 average annual pay for jobs lost during the recession.

- Unemployment and underemployment were felt most by men, people aged 25-54 and those with a high school education but less than a four-year college degree.

There is good news. Iowa workers still face a much better job market than their counterparts in many other states. But the bad news is that the state still is struggling to get the economy back to its pre-recession level and that struggle is likely to continue for a while.

And Iowa has a history of recovering more slowly than other states. Even before the recession, the state's job picture was sluggish compared to other states - showing only slow improvement after the previous recession. That meant that Iowa's economy didn't fall as far or as quickly as other states when the 2007 recession came around, but only because the state's economy really didn't have that far to fall.

That's why we were disappointed earlier this year when the Branstad administration announced it was going to shut down dozens of Iowa Workforce Development field offices - including the one in Iowa City. The decision was supposed to save the state $7 million, but at a time of such high unemployment, the offices are going to be needed more than ever.

And we were even more disappointed when Gov. Terry Branstad line-item vetoed a legislative compromise that would have provided funds to keep all those offices open. (Labor leaders and some lawmakers, including Rep. Dave Jacoby of Coralville, have filed suit against the governor claiming that the veto was unconstitutional.)

We're pleased that Iowa Workforce Development did find a way to keep its Iowa City satellite office open, but it now will be a significantly scaled-down operation. And less staffing will mean people seeking individual help with resumes, job planning, unemployment claim assistance and other services now may need to travel to Cedar Rapids, where one of the 16 one-stop Iowa Workforce regional offices is located.