(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s unemployment rate dropped again in April. Iowa Workforce Development reports initial unemployment claims fell to five-thousand-290 (5,290) last month — the lowest monthly number since 1973. That led to a drop in the April unemployment rate to three percent, down from three-point-three percent in March. The total number of working Iowans increased by 10-thousand in April compared to March — and that’s 45-thousand-100 more than April one year ago.

Manufacturing added 11-hundred jobs — the most of any sector for the month — and the fifth consecutive gain for the sector.