MASON CITY, Iowa - If you're unemployed now, or have ever been at any time in life, you know it's a scary time, debating how you're going to be able to survive without a steady paycheck coming in.
And the rate of those filing for unemployment keeps on climbing; so far, about 22 million people across the country have filed, with the nation's unemployment rate sitting at 4.5%, a 1% from February. In Minnesota, the unemployment rate held steady at 3.1% for March, with Iowa being a bit higher at 3.7%.
Gabe Gulick is the Regional Vice President of QPS Employment Group, whose mission is to connect people to the right job. He's seeing plenty of openings for jobs that work directly with the food supply chain, including food packaging and production, and warehousing and distribution, as well as those that specialize in medical supplies and some manufacturing, though a decrease in certain sectors like automobile and parts manufacturing.
"Overall, we're seeing our levels of business down, compared to what it was before the pandemic hit. But we're not seeing where things have stopped, things are continuing, and we will move on."
"We have really good clients who have a lot of positions that are more entry level positions. If someone was in the retail sector, the food sector, restaurants and hospitality, they can do those entry level positions...and they're willing to train and coach those people to get them engaged in the workforce and help those folks out."
However, he does predict brighter days ahead.
"I've actually been on a couple of calls with organizations that do long term forecasting, and they agree with that thought process. Once people are able to get out, they can work and spend again, we will see an uptick in things very, very quickly."
