The number of Iowans who filed unemployment claims last week fell to 35,042, the lowest it’s been in more than a year, new Iowa Workforce Development data shows. In addition, Iowans filed 3,893 initial claims during the week that ended on Saturday. It was the first time in more than a year that fewer than 4,000 initial claims were filed during a week. The state agency also reported that $8.6 million in jobless benefits was paid out of Iowa’s unemployment compensation trust fund. Since mid-March 2020, $1.29 billion has been paid from the fund. The U.S. Department of Labor today reported that 553,000 initial unemployment claims were filed nationally last week, a decrease of 13,000 from the previous week.