Turlock had an unemployment rate of 7.9 percent in February, down from 8 percent posted in January Denair had a rate of 5.3 percent in February, up slightly from the 5.1 percent posted in January. The national seasonally adjusted rate was 4.7 percent, down from 4.9 percent a year before.
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In February, the number of employed workers increased by 21,181 to 4,743,443.
The state has added 47,000 jobs since last February, but the 0.8 percent growth rate is half that of the national rate of 1.6 percent. Headquarters jobs for companies that do the bulk of their business elsewhere – such as GE, Xerox and Priceline – was another category that did poorly in the last 12 months. In February 2017 the Labor Force was the largest since October 2012. “We’re having those discussions, as a matter of fact a year ago our analysts were sitting around discussing that very same thing, thinking 3.4 or 3.5 percent was full employment”, Kelly says. It shrank in state government (down 3,100) among other sectors.
Information, which includes information technology professionals, had the biggest job loss in percentage terms over the year.
The best performing industries in February were trade, transportation and utilities and hospitality, which piled on a combined 16,700 jobs over the month.
Added to nonfarm employment were 66,100 jobs over the year. The drop brings Iowa’s unemployment rate down to about where it was in the early 2000s.
The number of unemployed people in IL fell 6 percent, to 352,000 people, while the number of people in the labor force grew.
The number of unemployed Iowans decreased to 53,600 in February from 56,900 in January.
“Candidates are staying on the market for a particular job for about a week before moving on to the next one”, said Brandi Britton, Los Angeles district president for Robert Half, a Menlo Park staffing firm. Also, the labor force participation rate increased from 68.1 percent in January to 68.3 percent for February. “Yet even with that gain, North Carolina has just 218,000 more payroll jobs than it did when the recession began in December 2007 (+5.2 percent)”.
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The rate had been at 4 percent in January and February after falling from 4.2 percent in November, 4.4 percent in October and 4.5 percent in September.
