Comment on Iowa’s unemployment rate remains at 3.6% in February

Iowa’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained at 3.6 percent in February, Iowa Workforce Development said Friday.While the number of unemployed Iowans increased from 58,000 in January to 58,300 to February, the number of employed Iowans increased by 3,200. Iowa’s labor force participation rate rose slightly from 65.5 percent to 65.6 percent.“February was an unusually cold month for an extended period of time and thankfully, our unemployment rate remained very close to the January rate,” Iowa Workforce Development Director Beth Townsend said in a news release.“We anticipate with the improvement in the weather and wider distribution of the vaccine, we will see a larger decrease in the unemployment rates this spring.”Townsend said there are more than 65,000 jobs available on the IowaWorks website, which is more than the 58,300 people who filed for unemployment in February.The unemployment and labor force numbers have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels.