Iowa City and Johnson County's Unemployment Rate Continues to Slowly Improve, As Does Iowa's

Iowa City's unemployment rate fell in November, continuing a downward trend, according to the latest report from Iowa Workforce Development.

The town's unemployment rate was an already low 3.4 in October. In November it was 3.2 percent, according to the report.

Both Johnson County's unemployment rate dropped from 3.3 percent to 3.2 from October to November.

The state is also in a better overall place than it was a year ago.

“Iowa’s unemployment rate reached a milestone in November,” said Teresa Wahlert, director of Iowa Workforce Development, in a news release. “November marked the first time since December 2008 that the state’s jobless rate was lower than 5.0 percent.”

Across Iowa, the unemployment rate fell from October's 5.1 percent to 4.8 percent in December. Nationally, the rate fell from 7.9 to 7.7 percent. Waterloo's rate stayed steady at 5.8 percent in both October and November.