Unemployed Iowans would be required to meet weekly with state case managers, conduct twice as many weekly work searches and undergo audits to prove they're actively looking for work under a new proposal announced Wednesday by Gov. Kim Reynolds.
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell to its lowest stage since the pandemic began. Iowa also saw a small drop.
Homes for Iowa, started in 2019, aims to satisfy two of Iowa’s biggest needs — training workers for in-demand jobs and building affordable housing for Iowa communities. The program at the Newton Correctional Facility supports several apprenticeship programs for offenders.
Closures of wood and metal shops have dramatically reduced the opportunities for Anamosa offenders to participate in apprenticeships, shown to reduce recidivism and improve an ex-offender’s likelihood of getting a job on the outside.
Mitchell Stites got 2,200 hours of hair cutting experience as a barber in the Iowa Department of Corrections, using clippers -- no scissors or straight-edges allowed -- to do bald fades and trims to make the men incarcerated with him at Fort Dodge look and feel good.
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Last year, the Iowa Department of Corrections and NewBoCo, in Cedar Rapids, started a coding program for women at the prison, funded by a $175,000 grant from the Google Impact Challenge. The pilot project is modeled after NewBoCo’s Delta V program, a 20-week boot camp where individuals with no technical background become Full Stack JavaScript developers.
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose for the third straight week, a sign that the highly contagious delta variant may be slowing a recovery in the job market.
Many employees who had been willing to work for lower wages may have found work in other industries that pay better after being let go during the pandemic
The number of Americans applying for unemployment aid rose last week for a second straight week, to 351,000 — a sign the delta variant of the coronavirus may be disrupting the job market's recovery, at least temporarily.
From wage increases to changes in company culture, companies are competing for a limited pool of workers.
Iowa’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.1 percent in August — a level that was well below the national rate and the number of Iowans who were thrown out of work a year ago during the economic throes of COVID-19 pandemic.
But Iowa still sees a drop in new and continuing applications
Over 30 employers are expected at the Corridor Career Fair this Thursday at NewBo City Market from 3:30-6:30 p.m. with a variety of roles and positions available to local job seekers.
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