Unemployment Payments Remain Steady

Iowa Workforce Development (IWD) announced today there were just under 25,000 initial unemployment claims filed by individuals for the week of April 26 through May 2. That number is down about 4,000 initial claims filed the prior week. $50.9 million was paid out of the trust fund for benefits, which is a little less than the $51 million that was paid the week of April 19-25. The number of continuing weekly unemployment claims was 181,358. Sectors that saw the most claims filed included manufacturing (6,053); those who are not identified by industry including the self-employed, independent contractors, etc. (4,010); and health care and social assistance (2,988). ABI continues to work with IWD and track the condition of the trust fund as the landscape of this issue is ever-changing. Read the news release.