How many job openings are there in Iowa?
Updated monthly
About 65,000, as of December 2025. The number of job openings decreased by 4,000 from December 2024. A “job opening” is defined as a position open on the last business day of the month. To be considered “open,” a job must meet three conditions: (1) There’s work available for the position; (2) The job could start within 30 days; and (3) The employer is actively recruiting.
65K
job openings in Iowa (December 2025)
4K
fewer unfilled jobs in Iowa in December 2025 than in December 2024
The number of job openings is one measure of employer demand for workers and is a commonly referred-to economic indicator. An increase in the number of job openings often indicates the economy is growing, while a decline may indicate slowed growth.
The number of job openings in Iowa has declined over the over the last year.
Monthly job openings (seasonally adjusted), December 2000–December 2025
Following the Great Recession, monthly job openings in Iowa increased from 33,000 in January 2010 to 74,000 in February 2020. By April 2020, job openings had dropped to 46,000. Job openings in Iowa then reached all-time highs during recovery from the COVID-19 recession. In December 2025, there were 65,000 job openings, down 5.8% from one year prior.
What is the job openings rate in Iowa?
The job openings rate is another way to consider this data. It tells us what percentage of all jobs, filled and unfilled, were open during a given time period. This allows for better comparisons across time, industries, and places by adjusting for differences in the size of the working population.
A similar share of jobs were open in Iowa than in the US overall in December.
Job openings rate (seasonally adjusted), December 2025
In December 2025, 3.9% of all jobs in Iowa were unfilled. This was similar to the job openings rate US-wide.
Job openings also differ across states and regions for many reasons, including differing economies and dominating industries. Iowa’s December job openings rate was lower than 28 states.
In December 2025, Iowa's job openings rate was lower than 28 states.
Seasonally adjusted job openings rate by state, December 2025
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Methodology
USAFacts standardizes data, in areas such as time and demographics, to make it easier to understand and compare.
The analysis was generated with the help of AI and reviewed by USAFacts for accuracy.
Page sources
USAFacts endeavors to share the most up-to-date information available. We sourced the data on this page directly from government agencies; however, the intervals at which agencies publish updated data vary.
