Iowa’s labor force participation increased in November and the unemployment rate remained low at 2.6% According to Iowa Workforce Development Director Beth Townsend, the labor force increased by 8,200 people last month. That put the total to 1,711,700 working Iowans in November, that’s 60,400 higher than a year ago when the unemployment rate was 2.4%. In November, the U.S. unemployment rate fell to 3.5%.