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More Iowans are employed, state agency reports

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Iowa has regained 98,000 jobs since last April when the outbreak of COVID-19 forced retailers, restaurants, bars and others to curb services, newly released data for Iowa Workforce Development shows. In February, there were 1.57 million working Iowans, up 3,200 from January. In April 2020, Iowa’s workforce totaled 1.52 million, the state agency said. The agency also reported that in February, Iowa’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 3.6%, the same as January’s revised rate. “February was an unusually cold month for an extended period of time and thankfully, our unemployment rate remained very close to the January rate,” Beth Townsend, Iowa Workforce Development’s director, said in a prepared statement. “We anticipate with the improvement in the weather and wider distribution of the vaccine, we will see a larger decrease in the unemployment rates this spring.” The U.S. unemployment rate in February was 6.2%, a slight change from January’s rate of 6.3%.