Des Moines Sun

Polk County recorded an unemployment rate of 4.4% among residents aged 16 and 65 years old in 2021. That’s 12,016 people out of the 488,871 living in Polk County at the time, according to data obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The unemployment rate in Polk County has decreased compared to the 4.6% registered in 2020.

The percentage of people unemployed in Polk County was greater than the statewide unemployment rate of 3.9%.

Of the 260,547 people who had a job during that time, 1,018 were employed in the Armed Forces and 259,529 belonged to the civilian labor force.

Employment status	Number of people	Percentage of population
Unemployed	12,016	4.4%
Employed	260,547	95.6%
Employed in civilian labor force	259,529	95.2%
Employed in armed forces	1,018	0.4%