Pixabay
Pixabay
Northwest Iowa has seen an uptick in unemployment numbers this spring due to shutdown orders brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ryan Murphy, who is the bureau chief for Iowa Workforce Development, said Northwest Iowa usually has the lowest numbers of unemployment when compared to the rest of the state.
“Generally, they have some of the smaller populations in our state per county. It’s always been that way,” Murphy told NWestIowa.com. “Historically, the northwest corner of our state has had the lowest unemployment rate. The only other counties in the state that are generally in the ballpark are the college counties like Story and Johnson.”
Murphy said the uptick became significant on March 28.
“We started to see the unemployment claims roll in about a week later than we did the state as a whole, so you start to see a bump. That’s when it had basically doubled,” Murphy told NWestIowa.com. “It was seen across the state as businesses were needed to close. That’s when we started to see those increases and that happen during that period of time.”
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