Unemployment numbers in the state of Iowa are slightly up from a year ago, according to the Iowa Job Service Workforce Center.

There was an increase of $25 million in Iowa unemployment insurance benefits paid to eligible residents between the years of 1995 and 1996, according to a press release.

Story County’s rates turned out to be lower than the Iowa average when compared to other counties of the same size.

A total of 10,094 recipients received $1,996,019 in insurance benefits over 10,279 weeks.

Bel Denekas, an employee of Iowa Job Service in Ames, said Story County falls lower on the list because of the many government organizations in Ames such as the Department of Transportation and Iowa State University.

“There is a lot of long-term, stable employment [available in the area],” Denekas said.

However, since most ISU students live in Ames on a temporary basis, the university does not have much of an effect on the overall numbers for Story County. Denekas said the figures used in computing unemployment insurance benefits are based on workers who have permanent residence in Ames.

Insurance benefits for 1996 totaled $190 million for 104,200 claimants and 1,000,891 weeks of jobless benefits. This compares to $165 million for 96,224 recipients and 895,844 weeks of jobless benefits in 1995.

These figures are also higher than the last two years, but unemployment rates are still relatively low.

Unemployment decreased every month last year until December, when it dramatically increased, largely because of construction and manufacturing layoffs.