Recently, Iowa Workforce Development released a report that showed Iowa’s unemployment rate reached all-time high of  6.7 percent, up from 6.6 percent in January. According to a report by the Des Moines Register, this is Iowa’s highest unemployment since July 1986 — before most of us were born.

In Iowa, a 6.7 percent unemployment rate means that approximately 112,500 people are out of work.

You can’t even fit that many people into Jack Trice Stadium and Hilton Coliseum at the same time.

That’s more people than the entire population of Charleston, S.C.

 That’s like the entire city of Ames being unemployed — twice. Which really isn’t even possible.

The unemployment rate was 5.3 percent a year ago at this time, which leads us to believe that the stimulus package isn’t working quite the way our friends in Washington had planned.

Luckily, we’ve lot a little stimulus package of our own. Until the economy recovers, Iowa’s laid-off workers should remain gainfully employed — in breaking Guinness World Records, that is.

Can you imagine the massive game of leapfrog that Iowa’s unemployed could play?

What about Duck-Duck-Goose? (Duck-Duck-Gray Duck?) Has anyone actually formed a circle that big? Can it be done?

If each of Iowa’s 112,500 unemplyed workers grabbed a shovel and tried to dig a hole to China, perhaps we could be recognized in the category of “largest hand-dug hole in the world.”

Hell, if Iowa’s unemployed can set enough records, perhaps Iowa will be recognized as the geographical place that holds the most world records — a world record in and of itself.

Seriously, though, we Iowans should take heart in the fact that our economy remains strong in comparison to the economies of many other states.

The national unemployment rate is currently at 9.7 percent. And while the Iowa unemployment rate is doing its best to catch up, we students should take solace in the fact that we’re still sitting here in school and not out in the real world trying to find jobs that don’t even exist.

Although it’s not ideal, it sure is nice to be here accruing debt instead of being stuck somewhere else trying to figure out how we’re going to buy our kids shoes, or put food in the bellies of our rottweilers.

We know, it’s going to be hard for you seniors getting ready to move on in life in May, and we feel for you, we do. The real world sucks, and lately it has been even suckier than usual. But hey, you have at least six months until your students loan payments kick in.

Maybe by then things will have taken a turn for the better.

According to the Associated Press, the U.S. Census Bureau is looking to hire anywhere between 600,000-700,000 people at wages between $10-25 per hour.

We know, the jobs will likely run through July, but work for two months has to be better than no work for two months, right?

And what better time to hire than right as you graduate or head home for the summer and need some short-term employment?

After that, there’s always the Book of Guinness. Grab a shovel. Once we get through about 25 miles of solid and molten rock, not to mention Earth’s iron core, we’ll have a record. And that’s what’s most important here.