Iowa’s unemployment rate dropped to 5.6 percent in December, the lowest level since June 2009. Iowa Workforce Development spokesperson Kerry Koonce says the report shows the state’s economy has improved a quite a bit over the last year. The unemployment rate is down from 5.7 percent in November and 6.1 percent in December 2010. An estimated 93,500 Iowans were unemployed in December. That’s down from 102,600 one year ago. The manufacturing sector added 800 jobs last month and 86-hundred (8,600) jobs over the year. Government cut the most jobs in 2011, shedding 43-hundred (4,300) positions.

(Pat Curtis/Radio Iowa)