The unemployment rate in Ames decreased from 4.1 percent in September to 3.9 percent in October, according to the labor market and economic research bureau of Iowa Workforce Development.

1,300 people reported being unemployed in October, compared to 1,400 in September.

In Story County, the unemployment rate also decreased from 4.6 percent to 4.4 percent.

In the state of Iowa, however, the unemployment rate stayed steady at 6.7 percent for both September and October.

“We’re kind of in a holding pattern, and we’ll probably see over the next several months our unemployment rate slowly decline,” said Kerry Koonce of the Iowa Workforce Development agency in an interview with Radio Iowa. “It’ll be well into 2011 before we see every month, continually, adding high numbers of jobs.”

However, Iowa’s unemployment rate remains low compared to the national rate, which was 9.6 percent in October.

—Daily Staff