The annual “State of Working Iowa Report” from an eastern Iowa think tank concludes the state’s economic recovery has been “painfully slow.” Noga O’Connor, a research associate with the Iowa City-based Iowa Policy Project, co-authored the report.

“We know that the state is doing better than the nation, but still we’re in much worse shape than we were before the recession hit,” O’Connor says. “So as far as unemployment, underemployment, job losses — all the measures that we traditionally look — we are still really struggling and have a long way to go to get back to where we were in 2007 or the first half of 2008.” The number of unemployed Iowans has swelled and 33 percent Iowans who are currently unemployed have been out-of-work for more than half a year. O’Connor says “underemployment” has grown to nearly 12 percent, as many Iowans have either taken a part-time job or dropped their search for a job altogether.

“Even once we gain the missing jobs, we are still — as far as wages — nowhere near where we used to be,” O’Connor says. “And the kinds of jobs that we are gaining seem to be lower-paying jobs, while the jobs that we have lost were the higher-paying jobs.” The Iowa Policy Project found wage levels in 2010, when adjusted for inflation, were lower than they were a decade earlier in Iowa.

“In several wage categories, we are at the very bottom nationally,” O’Connor says. The Iowa Policy Project identifies what it calls a “jobs deficit” in the state and concludes Iowa’s economy would have to add three-thousand jobs each month for the next three years in order to restore Iowa’s overall employment level to what it was in early 2008, when the recession began.

(Radio Iowa)

The U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affair is urging Iowa soldiers returning from Afghanistan to use their local V.A. health facility when they need care. Secretary Eric K. Shinseki says veterans in their 20’s and 30’s think the local V.A. is a place for old soldiers, but Shinseki says the agency has made changes to meet the needs of the current generation.

“We have an interest in a long-term association with a veteran,” Shinseki says, “and we think we provide that best by having that veteran be part of our system.” Shinseki says one way the agency has changed is by adding outpatient clinics across the country.

“Seven-hundred-89 outpatient clinics that are provided for them in the communities they live in — that’s what’s different,” he says. “Instead of saying, ‘Come to us,’ this system has provided healthcare delivery to where they live.” The V.A. has opened 11 outpatient clinics in Iowa as part of that expansion. Shinseki was in Iowa Thursday. He spoke with reporters before holding a private roundtable discussion with veterans and other officials in Indianola. Shinseki served two combat tours in Vietnam and was wounded, losing part of his foot. He rose through the ranks to become the Army’s Chief of Staff before retiring in 2003.

(Radio Iowa)

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – Amtrak is getting ready to resume part of its service between California and Chicago after last week’s derailment in southwest Nebraska. The railroad said Thursday that it would restart service between Denver and Emeryville, Calif., on Saturday, but Amtrak won’t resume carrying passengers across Nebraska and Iowa until sometime later this month. Amtrak says its California Zephyr will depart California on Saturday, and a westbound train will leave Denver on Sunday.

Amtrak suspended service after last Friday’s derailment near Benkelman, Neb. Two locomotives and three passenger cars were forced after the rails when the train struck a crane but no major injuries were reported. Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad, which owns the tracks Amtrak uses in Nebraska, is still repairing flood damage near Omaha that forced long detours for Amtrak.