The number of Iowans filing weekly unemployment claims jumped to 57,089 last week, a nearly 12% increase from the previous week, according to data released today by Iowa Workforce Development.

It is the fourth consecutive week the number of unemployment claims filed has increased.

Nearly 32% of Iowans who filed claims last week indicated their unemployment was COVID-19-related, a percentage similar to the previous week, the agency reported. 

Additionally, the state agency reported that during the week that ended on Saturday:
•26.3%, or 2,014, of the 7,638 new claims were filed by people who work in construction; 18.2%, or 1,397, of new claims were filed by people who work in manufacturing.
•$15.6 million in jobless benefits was paid out of the state’s unemployment compensation trust fund, the highest weekly amount since the week that ended on Sept. 26. That week, $17 million was paid out of the fund. Since mid-March, Iowa has paid out more than $1.09 billion in unemployment claims from the fund.  
•$889,200 was paid in Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation benefits, which were retroactive payments for the program that ended July 25. Since April 4, a total of $1.62 billion in benefits has been paid from the fund.
•$4.3 million was paid in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits. Since April 13, $179.1 million has been paid from the fund.
•$5.5 million was paid in Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation benefits. Since May 27, $191.4 million has been paid from the fund.

Several federal programs that provided additional unemployment assistance to people who lost jobs for COVID-19-related reasons have been extended into March. For more information about the programs, click here.

National data
New unemployment claims filed for week ending Jan. 9: 965,000
People continuing to receive jobless benefits for week ending Jan. 2: 5.27 million
Advanced seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for week ending Jan. 2: 3.7%

Note: The continuing claims and unemployment rate lag by a week from initial claims filings.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor