Iowa’s unemployment rate in April was three-point-three percent — the same as March. Iowa Workforce Development Director Beth Townsend says there was a modest increase in hiring last month. “We did see an increase of 3400 jobs in the month of April, which is a good sign,” Townsend says. “We also saw growth in manufacturing, which we haven’t seen in the past few months.” Iowa manufacturers added 400 workers to their payrolls in April. Over the past 12 months the manufacturing sector has shed 38-hundred jobs.
