A summary is below. More details are available on our State Employment Page.

March 23, 2018

Summary

• Iowa added 2,500 jobs and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 2.9 percent in February according to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data.

• Over the past twelve months, Iowa added 9,900 jobs and the unemployment rate fell by 0.5 percentage point from 3.4 percent.

• In February, Iowa's private sector added 3,500 jobs and over the past twelve months, it created 9,400 jobs.

• The number of unemployed Iowans fell by 410 in February, and over the past year, 35 Iowans lost jobs.

• Iowa’s labor force participation rate decreased to 67.9 percent from 68 percent in February.  Since last year, the labor force participation rate fell 0.8 percentage point.

• The national unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.1 percent in February.  State employment and unemployment data for March is scheduled for release on April 20, 2018.  The national employment situation report for March will be released on Friday, April 6, 2018.