Between March 15th and March 21st Iowa had 40,592 unemployment claims. Iowa Workforce Development has released the initial unemployment insurance claims for the first week related to the COVID-19 crisis. For the week ending on March 20th, unemployment insurance benefits were paid to Iowans for a total of $10,674,711.86. The top five industries in the state related to COVID-19 claims were accommodation and food services (13,364), healthcare and social assistance (4,936), education services (2,698), other services (1,999), and retail trade (1,710). Iowa Workforce Development processed all of the initial surge of unemployment insurance claims received during that time frame. The department advises they are receiving an unprecedented level of calls and continues to have several hundred staff answering phone calls each day, but anticipate long waits.