Iowa sees further decline in weekly unemployment claims

Iowa Workforce Development reported decreases in new and continuing unemployment claims in the week ending May 1 for the second consecutive week.

New claims dropped from 3,955 to 3,375, and continuing claims fell from 30,532 to 28,451. Both are the fewest since the start of the pandemic.

About 45.8 percent of initial claims were related to coronavirus, according to IWD, which was down from 49.3 percent in the previous week.

Manufacturing was the largest source of claims with 574, followed by self-employed and independent contractors with 518, retail trade with 277, construction with 269, and health care and social assistance with 264.

IWD issued $19.7 million in Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation, $7.8 million in standard unemployment benefits, $8.2 million in Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation and $4.9 million in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance.

These numbers are preliminary and are yet to be adjusted by the U.S. Department of Labor. They also only include people actively seeking work and therefore do not necessarily include all Iowans out of work.

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