Posted Friday, June 18, 2010
Previous releases
Iowa Policy Project statement from Executive Director David Osterberg regarding the latest Iowa job numbers and unemployment figures provided by Iowa Workforce Development:
Iowa's latest job numbers show promise. A 300-job increase for May seems small, but it comes on top an increase for April not previously reflected in state estimates. For the first five months of this year, Iowa is gaining 3,500 nonfarm jobs per month. That pace is better than the average for any year since 1994. It is only five months of gains but I am cautiously optimistic about this year.
The reason for the caution is because of the state's four largest employment sectors, three showed declines in May (manufacturing; trade, transportation and utilities; and education and health services). The fourth, government, rose by 2,600, which IWD attributed to federal census worker hiring, slightly offset by a reduction of 500 state government jobs.
New census hiring works like the stimulus program did to help the economy start producing new jobs. But once the census is complete, the private sector must hire more in the months ahead to sustain this very good start on the year.
The Iowa Policy Project (IPP) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit research and policy analysis organization based in Mount Vernon, with its principal office in Iowa City. IPP reports on job trends and other public policy issues facing Iowa are at www.iowapolicyproject.org.
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— Payroll (or nonfarm) jobs in May stood at 1,476,300, which is a 300-job decrease from the revised April estimate of 1,476,000 jobs. Nonfarm jobs were slightly higher a year ago, 1,480,000 in May 2009.
— Iowa's unemployment rate dropped in April to 6.8 percent from 6.9 percent in April. The unemployment rate remained a full percentage point above the May 2009 rate of 5.8 percent.
— Iowa nonfarm jobs have increased in all five months of 2010 and eight of the last 10 months.
— Nonfarm jobs, averaging a 3,500-per-month gain so far in 2010, are on their strongest pace in 15 years if the increases can be sustained.
— The unemployment rate decline is the first one-month reduction since January 2008 (3.8 percent, from 3.9 percent December 2007).
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