Iowa weekly unemployment claims continue gradual decrease in last week of July

More than 110,000 Iowans filed for new or continuing unemployment claims between July 26 and Aug. 1, the Iowa Workforce Development said Thursday. That was a decrease of more than 5,000 from the previous week and the fewest total claims since the week of March 28.

The state had 6,765 initial claims, which was down from 6,970 the previous week.

Iowa reported 104,970 continuing claims, the fewest in the state since the week of April 4.

Manufacturing accounted for 1,429 claims, followed by self-employed and independent contractors, with 981; health care and social assistance, with 648; retail, with 458; and education services, with 407.

The claims resulted in $29.9 million in standard unemployment benefits, $4.8 million in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and $3.7 million in Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation.

Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation, which gave Iowans an extra $600 per week in benefits, ended July 25.

Iowans received $78.6 million in FPUC benefits last week and more than $1.5 billion in FPUC benefits since April 4.

These numbers only include people actively seeking work and does not necessarily give a full picture of how many people are out of work in Iowa.

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