(Radio Iowa) – The search for workers to fill open jobs continues to be one of the top priorities in surveys of Iowa businesses. Iowa Workforce Development Director, Beth Townsend, says the numbers for March don’t show a lot of workers leaving one job for another. “In Iowa, it was a two-point-six percent quit rate, which is the eighth lowest in the country. The national rate was two-point-nine percent in the same time period,” Townsend says. She says that may change when the numbers for April or May are released. “I would expect or hope that that rate will continue to decline in Iowa. But certainly, there’s trading up as you know, as one employer raises wages, then you often see people who will leave a 15 dollar hour a job to go to a 20 dollars an hour, ” she says.

Townsend says there may have been an incentive to move to another job in the past — but businesses have taken steps to keep employees. “Employers are all starting at roughly between 15 and 20 dollars an hour — so I don’t know that there’s a lot of advantage now,” Townsend says. She says her agency tries that issue in evaluating the skills and needs of employees. “Through the re-employment case management system, we are working hard to help people find a job that they really want to have, and kind of get off that cycle of working somewhere for six months, and then, you know, moving on and going on to something else,” according to Townsend. “We want them to find a job that’s going to stick and that they’ll be able to stay with for a longer period of time.”

She encourages you to seek out help from I-W-D if you are looking for a job.