(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s unemployment held at two-point-eight percent in June. Iowa Workforce Development director, Beth Townsend, says there weren’t any big changes during the month. “A slight decrease in the labor force participation rate of two tenths of a point, but that was primarily due to retirements, and as most people know May and June are two pretty big months for people retiring,” she says. Townsend says there were some headwinds with the national economy, along with some layoffs and the natural disasters. “Iowa employers nonetheless added 300 net jobs in June so that was good. We saw the most gains in education and health care which gained 18-hundred jobs in June,” Townsend says. “We always like to see the healthcare industry being able to hire because they have the most need, and have had for a significant period of time even pre-pandemic.” There were some job losses as well.

“Not surprising we saw manufacturing shed about a thousand jobs this month, and that was the most of any other industry. Government lost 12-hundred jobs but that’s usually related to school bus drivers not working in the summer,” she says. Townsend says the manufacturing layoffs will start showing up in the unemployment numbers in the next two months. “We did have some John Deere layoffs in May, a little bit in June, but the larger layoffs were effective more in July and August, So, if they’re going to impact the numbers I would expect we’ll see that we’ll see that in July or August,” Townsend says.

The state unemployment rate has been below three percent since hitting that mark in January. The U-S unemployment rate increased to four-point-one percent in June.