Unemployment rate steady at 4.9 percent

DES MOINES – Iowa’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for December was unchanged at 4.9 percent. The current rate is seven-tenths of a percentage point lower than the year ago rate of 5.6 percent. The U.S. jobless rate for December was also the same as the prior month, remaining at 7.8 percent. “The modest pace of job growth in 2012 managed to drop the state’s unemployment rate below 5.0 percent in the final ...