Articles Tagged: Iowa Workforce Development

Iowa’s job search website remains inoperative, more than two weeks after the system fell victim to a cyberattack.

The state awarded more than $3.6 million across a spectrum of 88 businesses — from veterinary services and plumbers to utilities and the Iowa Department of Corrections — to create or expand apprenticeships.

State says the outage does not affect any new or current unemployment claims

Iowa Workforce Development’s IowaWORKS.gov web site, which developed an outage on Sunday, was expected to remain down through Tuesday

Iowans forced out of work for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine are now beginning to collect unemployment benefits due to a new law approved in October.

GOP says changes needed to modernize, put focus on re-employment. The legislationm they say, updates a system from the 1930s when unemployment compensation was the sole safety net for out-of-work Iowans.

Iowa’s seasonally adjusted jobless rate in January dropped to 3.7 percent, down from 3.9 percent in December, according to Iowa Workforce Development.

The Iowa Public Information Board directed a state agency to examine its director’s cellphone for text messages that were requested nine months ago by Clark Kauffman, Iowa Capital Dispatch’s deputy editor, as part of his investigation into unemployment benefits fraud at the time.

Future Ready Iowa’s Summer Youth Internship Project provided $1.61 million in grants last year to 26 companies or organizations providing high school internships. These internships included landscaping, custom meat processing, nursing, utility management and engineering, among other disciplines. Another round of funding is available now, with applications due March 2.

Complaints to the Iowa Ombudsman about unemployment claims tripled in fiscal 2021, with a large share coming from Iowans awarded jobless benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic and then later told they had to repay the money.

In Iowa, there are 1.4 job openings for each unemployed person, according to an analysis of employment data. With 1 percent population growth forecast, the problem is unlikely to go away.

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.

After a sharp rise in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of Iowans receiving food stamps has continued a seven-year decline.

The state unemployment rate increased for the third consecutive month as more Iowans rejoin the labor force.