Iowa Jobs Fall; Jobless Rate Hits 5.1 Percent
Iowa Policy Project
MOUNT VERNON, Iowa (March 17, 2005) – Iowa’s shaky economic
recovery took an employment dive in January, falling by 3,600 nonfarm
jobs as the unemployment rate rose to a nearly 17-year high of 5.1
percent.
The
unemployment rate, its highest level in Iowa since February, 1988, rose
from a revised 5 percent in December and 4.6 percent in January 2004.
The nonfarm job number was up by 10,600 over January 2004.
“That is
really slow job growth for a year, especially when compared with levels
before the 2001 recession and even the revised December figures. This
is a setback from what already was a slow pace in regaining jobs lost
during that recession,” said David Osterberg, executive director of the
nonpartisan Iowa Policy Project (IPP).
The
one-month 3,600-job decline for January compares with a revised 2004
average of about 1,300 per month – and keeps the state 15,800 jobs
behind the level from the March, 2001, start of the last recession. To
erase that job deficit in 2005, Iowa will need an average monthly gain
of more than 1,400 nonfarm jobs from February through December.
Osterberg
noted comments from Iowa Workforce Development Director Richard Running
that the economy’s performance “was still too weak to take up the slack
left over from the jobless recovery.”
“We
share the view that this has been a ‘jobless recovery,’” Osterberg
said. “Once again, here we are in March, anticipating the graduation of
new classes from college and high school, and wondering whether the
Iowa economy will offer these new graduates attractive job
opportunities. That is the policy issue that needs to be addressed in
the light of these numbers.”
The
largest single drop in January came in trade and transportation, down
1,900 for the month after three straight months of growth. Construction
jobs fell 1,300 in January after gains in November and December,
while government jobs, which have not shown an increase since August,
fell by 300.
Increases came in professional and business services, 500; financial activities, 400; and manufacturing, 300.
IPP reports about job and income trends are on the web at www.iowapolicyproject.org. The Iowa Policy Project is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization based in Mount Vernon.
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