(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s unemployment rate dropped by more than one percent in September. Iowa Workforce Development reports the September rate is four-point-seven percent — down from six percent in August. It is the fifth consecutive month the state unemployment rate has dropped since peaking at 11 percent in April during the height of the pandemic. The number of unemployed Iowans is estimated at 111-thousand-400 lower than that April peak.

Leisure and hospitality gained the most jobs in September at 41-hundred — and Workforce Development says those were predominantly jobs at eating and drinking establishments. I-W-D says there are 64-thousand job openings across the state.