Amie here; welcome to Thursday’s Almanac.

If break time’s over, here’s the tl;dr:

Iowa and other rural areas lost a ton of working-age folks just in the last 15 years;
Upcoming Iowa layoffs and labor news;
Are you misclassified as a contractor? (Up to 30% of contractors are!)

Unemployment rates don’t tell the full story of what’s really happening in our economy—what explains that “hollowing out” feeling Iowans have gotten over the last decade and a half.

When places like Iowa see more of our young people moving out, with only retired folks staying, the unemployment rate won’t show that. But the labor force participation rate will, which is why the LFP is more directly tied to economic growth.

So when I saw a video on Twitter showing how LFP across the country has changed, I finally had proof of the anecdotal feeling we were all getting in Iowa these last 15 years.

It’s this week’s top story.

Watch the latest edition of Clocked In on:

Has your county gone the other direction, with more people leaving than staying? What’s that been like to witness? Reply and tell me your experience.

Amie Rivers

Newsletter Editor, Iowa Starting Line

Member, COURIER United (WGA East)

Email me

Paid more, still earning less: It’s Teacher Appreciation Week, but while public school teachers in Iowa got a bump in pay from the Iowa Legislature, they’re still making less than they were 10 years ago because of inflation. “The reason we fell so fell so far behind wasn’t just because of inflation, but because the Iowa Legislature waited 11 years to give teachers a raise,” argued Ed Tibbetts this week. “And how long will it be before Iowa lawmakers give teachers another raise? How far behind will we have fallen by then?”
He said the Iowa visit was about workers’ issues, but Vice President JD Vance came to Des Moines this week and basically just stumped for US Rep. Zach Nunn, whose re-election is now rated a “toss up.”
Here’s what “getting rid of DEI” means: Black Americans have lower employment compared to last year, with Black men in particular finding less work than they did a year ago.
What if Spirit Airlines, which shut down entirely this weekend, were brought back as America’s first worker-owned airline?
AI is the “single biggest threat to working people of our lifetime,” according to Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, which represents unions representing 15 million American workers. “It is a right now issue,” she told the National Press Club last week. “It’s something working people are thinking about every single day.”
Starting a union: Twenty-one healthcare workers at River Hills Community Health Center in Centerville filed a petition May 1 for the right to vote on unionizing with River Hills United (Teamsters Local 90).

All information taken from Iowa Workforce Development’s WARN Act website. Read WARN Act and Iowa WARN Act criteria here.

CNH Industrial in Burlington is closing and laying off:
one worker by May 22,
seven workers by May 29,
15 workers by June 26,
13 workers by Sept. 25, and
five workers by Dec. 31.
Read more here.
Wells Fargo in West Des Moines is laying off:
62 workers by May 30,
25 workers by June 13, and
10 workers by June 27.
Read more here.
First Student in Waterloo is closing and laying off 120 workers by June 30. Read more here.