Home News Saturday Afternoon News, November 21st

Saturday Afternoon News, November 21st

Iowa’s Unemployment Rate Falls

Iowa’s unemployment rate fell a full point during October, to three-point-six percent.
Iowa’s unemployment rate is tied with South Dakota for third lowest in the country, behind only Nebraska and Vermont. About 47-hundred people were hired in Iowa’s construction industry last month. State officials say it’s the first time since May there’s been job growth in construction. There were still layoffs in Iowa’s food service and hotel industries last month. The data shows the size of Iowa’s workforce has shrunk by about 90-thousand
compared to pre-pandemic levels. Iowa’s unemployment rate peaked in April at 11 percent.

 

 

 

State Offers Grant Of One Million Dollars For New Enterprise

(Des Moines) — State officials are providing a one-MILLION dollar forgivable loan to a Japanese company that plans to make what it calls “spider silk” at a facility in Clinton.
Spider silk is plant-based and, according to a news release from the Iowa Economic Development Authority, it’s an alternative to nylon and other materials made out of petroleum. Spiber (SPY-ber), Incorporated, is working in partnership with A-D-M and plans to inest more than 101 million dollars in the project. State officials say the operation will be the first of its kind in the United States. According to a news release from the State of Iowa, the
Japanese company has worked with The North Face to make a bio-degradable jacket. The company is installing equipment at A-D-M’s biorefinery in Clinton — equipment for a process that involves fermentation, spinning the plant fibers and weaving them into fabric.

 

 

University Of Iowa To Go Online Following Thanksgiving Break, While Iowa State University and University Of Northern Iowa Conclude Semesters.

(Des Moines) — Friday was the final day of classes at Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa. Students will start taking finals today (Saturday) and the fall semester will end on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. U-N-I president Mark Nook says less than 30 percent of U-N-I’s
classes have been exclusively online.

Iowa State University president Wendy Wintersteen says it’s been a fall semester unlike any other, but the student body has been fairly stable.


There WERE huge spikes of Covid cases in Ames AND Iowa City when students returned for fall classes. University of Iowa president Bruce Harreld (HAIR- uld) says after initial fears, it appears the virus has been manageable on the Iowa City campus.


Harreld says the university updated the air handling systems in some campus buildings and mask wearing is very common in the community, both contributing factors in keeping Covid “relatively controlled” on campus.

University of Iowa students get a Thanksgiving break, starting next Wednesday. Classes resume November 30th — but they will ALL be online through the end of the fall semester.
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