CGI News: Iowa jobs show slow growth

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: SATURDAY, AUG. 31, 2024

Labor Day look: Iowa jobs show slow growth
State lags nation as governor, lawmakers push down worker opportunities

DES MOINES, Iowa — Iowa’s job market is in a slow-growth mode as Governor Kim Reynolds and legislative leaders suppress worker rights and advance counterproductive policies that hold back our economy.

The latest numbers released by Iowa Workforce Development this month showed a 1,500-job drop in Iowa payrolls in July, the fourth drop in seven months. Iowa’s 12-month job growth stood at 19,200, or a monthly average of 1,600 jobs.

"That is underwhelming growth, a little better than the monthly average before the pandemic, but certainly propped up by federal recovery initiatives since," said Mike Owen, deputy director of the nonpartisan Common Good Iowa.

Monthly averages ranged from 400 to 900 in the five years before COVID. A strong performance would be over 3,000 a month under goals set — but not reached — by previous Governor Terry Branstad.

“In the worst days of COVID, we lost nearly 11% of Iowa jobs in one month. We’ve come back from that and got back on the plus side in late 2022, but since then Iowa job growth has settled back to a much slower pace,” Owen added.

“The data make a strong argument that, for healthy economic growth, what we’re doing now isn’t enough. Iowa must make greater investments in worker protection from illegal misclassification and wage theft, in economic supports including raising the minimum wage, and in infrastructure.”

Iowa’s growth is off the national pace when tracked from two key dates: December 2019, before the COVID pandemic hit, and July 2022, when the Governor’s unemployment benefits restrictions took effect.

·        Iowa’s net nonfarm job growth is only up 1.2% from the pre-COVID high in December 2019 — a very weak average monthly increase of 300 jobs. During that same period, U.S. nonfarm jobs grew by 5%.

·        Since the Governor’s unemployment benefit cuts, which she envisioned would push people to go back to work during the COVID recovery, the monthly average growth is 1,300 jobs. Iowa nonfarm jobs grew in that period by 2%, while U.S. nonfarm jobs grew 3.7%, almost twice as fast.

Other highlights of Iowa jobs numbers:

·        Iowa nonfarm or payroll jobs stood at 1,608,700 in July, just short of the record high of 1,611,700 set in March.

·        The largest four job sectors have mixed results over the past year. Education and Health Services jobs are up 10,000 and Government is up 2,800, but Manufacturing is down 1,500 and Trade and Transportation is down 1,800.

The July job numbers are preliminary and may be adjusted in the next official monthly report, but are consistent with recent trends.

“Job growth in Iowa has been a long struggle ever since the Great Recession of 2008-09,” Owen said. “It’s unfortunate that as we celebrate Labor Day 2024, we know Iowa policy makers are not putting workers’ interests first, with steps that could make work in Iowa more attractive.

“Instead, we see tax cuts targeted to the wealthy, reduction and stigmatization of unemployment insurance and food aid, fewer protections in the workplace for workers who are injured or who have their pay stolen by employers. We see laws to put teenagers in jobs that pose physical risk in the workplace and on the roads getting to and from work.”
 

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