Iowa unemployment rises again in March, despite more non-farm jobs

An increase in non-farm jobs was not enough to stop Iowa's unemployment rate from rising again in March.

The unemployment rate climbed from 6.7 percent in February to 6.8 percent in March.

Iowa's unemployment rate has climbed by 1.3 percent in the past year, while the number of Iowans counted as unemployed rose by 23,300 over the same period, to 114,600.

The statewide unemployment rate of 6.7 percent remains three percentage points below the national rate of 9.7 percent, which was unchanged for March.

Iowa Workforce Development Director Elisabeth Buck found a ray of sunshine in the statistics. She said March was the third consecutive month the state has experienced overall job growth, “which reinforces the view that the state's economy is on the mend.”

Buck said it will simply take more time to achieve the strong and sustained job growth needed to reduce Iowa's unemployment rate significantly.

The job category experiencing the biggest gain was professional and business services, up 2,800 from February. The gains were linked to increased hiring of temporary workers in both blue collar and white collar professions.

Government employment was also a strong gainer, rising 2,000. Many of the additional government jobs were due to hiring for the United States census.

The critical manufacturing sector added 1,400 jobs, most of them in durable goods production.