The number of Iowans who filed initial unemployment claims last week jumped to 6,770, a 47% increase from the previous week when 4,602 first-time claims were filed, newly released data from Iowa Workforce Development shows. Nearly 30% of the initial claims, or 1,950, were filed by people who were self-employed or independent contractors; 14% or 974 of the new claims were filed by people who worked in manufacturing. Overall, 45,412 unemployment claims were filed during the week that ended on Saturday. The state agency also reported that $12.6 million in jobless benefits was paid out of Iowa’s unemployment compensation trust fund. Since mid-March 2020, $1.26 billion has been paid from the fund. The U.S. Department of Labor today reported that 744,000 initial unemployment claims were filed nationally last week, an increase of 16,000 from the previous week.