According to the article, Iowa's unemployment in creased for the first time in seven years, which to some extent, proves the weakening state economy.
Avoiding to the article, the The state's February rate of 3.7 percent was two-tenths of a percent higher than in January, which is a marked departure in Iowa because the unemployment there has never increased since 2009. However, the article points out that the changing in employment rate has actually been expected for a long time, because there have been a lot of signs showing the statewide weaken in economy, and there's expectation that the unemployment gonna increase in future months.
As it mentioned in the article, on reason for the large layoff is that there are many good jobs available to individuals, so they would find jobs faster and try to remain in the field.
There's a report that Iowa has come a new changing point after years of steady state.
Here's the link: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/business/2016/03/25/iowa-unemployment-rises-first-time-since-2009/82253218/
Iowa, commonly understood to be one of the country's largest farming states, could be an economic indicator with the given report. In the last several decades, the farming industry has been butchered due to bigger name buyouts. Though this is nothing new, it is interesting to consider that it is just now having an effect on the state second to California (ERS.USDA.GOV) for agricultural output. However, the main concern for the business leaders, as the article said, is not this but the effect on demand due to the presidential race, recent terrorist attacks, soft commodities and a weak dollar. So perhaps Iowa is not the indicator, rather Iowa allows to examine underlying problems
ReplyDeleteI think it's a little bit early to make any conclusion right now, it is just unemployment rate in Feb higher than previous month. In my opinion, this is more like a short time fluctuation in labor market. Just like one of the researcher in the article said: "one month increase does not make a trend." But this can be a good indicator though.
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