The unemployment rate in Marion County remained largely steady from June to July according to the latest from Iowa Workforce Development.

Marion County is at 6.5% unemployment, down slightly from 6.6% in the previous month. Seventy new employees were added to the labor force, now up to 16,690 out of 17,860 jobs available. There are 1170 unemployed individuals in the county as of July. One year ago, Marion County was at 2.2 percent unemployment.

Warren County is at 5.6 percent unemployed as of July, down from 7.2 percent in June. An additional 600 residents found work, bringing the total employed up to 25,600. There were 2,000 claiming unemployment benefits in Warren County in June, which is down to 1,500 in the most recent data. Warren County was at 2.5 percent unemployment in July 2019.

Statewide, the jobless rate in Iowa was 6.6 percent, well below the nation’s 10.2 percent rate. Director of Iowa Workforce Development Beth Townsend reports a work search requirement for most unemployed individuals will start again on September 8th.

The state of Iowa’s unemployment rate is still well above the 2019 numbers, when it stood at 2.7 percent, which 107,300 Iowans out of work, down approximately 30,000 from this past June, but nearly 60,000 people more than in July 2019. During the height of closures related to the pandemic, approximately 185,000 Iowans were without work in April.