Continuing weekly unemployment claims increase in Iowa

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) - Iowa Workforce Development reports 7,638 people filed initial unemployment claims in Iowa last week, a slight decrease from the previous week.

Continuing weekly unemployment claims increased last week to a total of 49,451. That’s an increase of 6,286 from the previous week.

IWD said the majority of claimants, at nearly 68.3 percent, indicated their claims were not COVID-19-related.

IWD reports the state usually sees the most unemployment claims from November through February due to seasonal layoffs in construction, agriculture, landscaping and manufacturing.

For the week ending on January 9, industries including construction, manufacturing and self-employed/independent contractors had the most claims.

For more on this week’s data, click here.