Jobless Rates Up Slightly in January
By Pat Kinney, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, Iowa
Mar. 11–WATERLOO –The Waterloo-Cedar Falls metro area’s unemployment rate was 4.3 percent in January, down from 4.4 percent in January 2007 but up from the 4.1 percent reported in December 2007.
The total number of people working in the area, which incudes Black Hawk, Bremer and Grundy counties, stood at 88,700, unchanged from a year ago but down from the 90,400 employed in December 2007 during the holiday shopping season.
Durable goods manufacturing was at 16,400, unchanged from a year ago but down from the 16,600 employed in December.
The biggest declines in employment during January were in state and local government. The biggest gains were in service-production jobs, specifically financial activities, professional and business services and educational and health services.
The metro area’s January jobless rate was about in the middle of the pack of the state’s urban counties and metro ares, ranging from a 3.2 percent jobless rate in Iowa City to 4.9 percent in Pottawattamie County, the Iowa side of the Council Bluffs- Omaha, Neb. area. The state’s jobless rate was 3.6 percent.
January unemployment rates for Northeast Iowa counties, with the December rates in parentheses, are: Benton, 5.0 (4.6); Black Hawk, 4.3 (4.2); Bremer, 4.4 (3.6); Buchanan, 5.2 (4.7); Butler, 5.5 (4.8); Chickasaw, 5.6 (5.1); Delaware, 4.9 (4.1); Fayette, 6.2 (4.8); Floyd, 5.8 (5.0); Franklin, 4.5 (3.8); Grundy, 4.1 (3.6); Hardin, 4.6 (4.4); Howard, 4.6 (4.3); Mitchell, 3.9( (3.6); Tama, 5.9 (5.3) ; and Winneshiek, 6.0 (4.6).
Contact Pat Kinney at (319) 291-1484 or pat.kinney@wcfcourier.com.
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