Friday 19th April 2024

While the country was setting a record with 6.6 million new unemployment claims last week, Iowa was setting its own record for unemployment.

Iowa Workforce Development reports there were 58-thousand-435 COVID-19 unemployment claims filed between March 22 and 28th. More than 12-thousand of those claims came in the food and related services are. Health care and manufacturing each saw more than seven-thousand claims, and there were nearly six-thousand in the retail sector. according to ISu economist David Swenson, most claims come from businesses that were forced to shut down or limit their operations under the governor’s health emergency declaration. Swenson says losses in areas like manufacturing are likely to follow.

Swenson says the total number of people who have lost jobs is likely even larger because not all workers who are laid off apply for unemployment. The state paid nearly 14 million dollars in unemployment claims in the last week.