Iowa’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 2.6% in October, up from 2.4% a year ago and 2.5% in September. The national rate rose to 3.6% from 3.5% in September. State officials said the labor force participation rate in Iowa rose to 70.4% in October, up from 70.1% in September. “While Iowa saw a small increase in the number of unemployed in October, we also saw an increase of 9,100 more Iowans in the workforce than we saw in September,” said Beth Townsend, director of Iowa Workforce Development. “Over the past 12 months we have seen more than 52,000 Iowans join the workforce. Employers continue to face a shortage of skilled workers and there are currently over 60,000 job postings on www.IowaWorks.gov.”