Unemployment decreased on a local, state, and national level this February following a couple months of increases in the KCII listening area.

Data from Iowa Workforce Development shows unemployment decreased for Washington and all of its contiguous counties: Washington from 4.5-3.7%, Johnson from 3.2-2.6%, Louisa from 5.3-4.4%, Henry from 4.0-3.1%, Jefferson from 3.8-3.0%, Keokuk from 5.2-4.2%, and Iowa from 4.3-3.6%. The state and national unemployment rates both lowered by two-tenths of a percentage point, at 3.5% and 3.8% percent, respectively. The total number of unemployed Iowans fell to 59,400 in February and the total number of working Iowans increased to 1,626,800. The labor force participation rate increased from 66.8-67%.