The map produced by Iowa Workforce Development shows unemployment rates by county. Marshall County has the state’s highest unemployment rate at 8.9%. For more detailed information, click here.

Marshall County has Iowa’s highest unemployment rate with 8.9% of its labor force out of work, February data from Iowa Workforce Development shows.

The county, which has a labor force of nearly 18,000 people, has experienced “a higher increase in unemployment claims in recent months mostly due to expected seasonal constructional shutdowns and the unexpected TPI closure,” according to Jesse Dougherty, spokesperson for Iowa Workforce Development.

TPI Composites of Newton, which made wind blade turbines, closed its doors on Dec. 31, leaving more than 700 people without jobs. A portion of the laid-off workers live in Marshall County, according to the state agency. An exact number was not available.

In February, Iowa’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 3.5% with 59,400 people out of work, the state agency reported last week.

County-level data released today shows that the February unemployment rate by county ranged from 2% in Lyon, Osceola, Story and Taylor counties to 8.9% in Marshall County.

Clayton County, in northeast Iowa, had the state’s second-highest unemployment rate at 7.2%, according to the state data. The county, which includes the cities of Elkader, Guttenberg and Postville, has a labor force that totals 9,810 people, of which 710 were out of work in February.

In Polk County, 9,700, or 3.6%, of the county’s 272,500 workers were unemployed in February.

In February 2021, Iowa’s statewide seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.4% with 73,100 of the state’s 1.66 million workers unemployed, state data shows.

The state has held two job fairs in response to the layoffs at TPI, Dougherty said. In December a job fair was held at the Newton campus of Des Moines Area Community College, and in February the state sponsored a virtual job fair. More than 130 employers participated in the fairs from both the local area and across Iowa, Dougherty said.