Administer the state?s unemployment insurance program activities

The Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration awarded $48.946 million to the Workforce Development Center (Iowa Workforce Development) on October 1, 2025, under the Unemployment Insurance program (CFDA 17.225) to administer Iowa's unemployment insurance program activities.

The funding covers operational costs of the state's unemployment insurance program, including administrative workload, claims processing capacity, claimant systems operation, staffing, and overhead. Iowa Workforce Development will maintain or improve performance in timeliness and quality of unemployment insurance claims processing, reduce improper payments, and strengthen identification and prevention of fraudulent claims. The intended beneficiaries are unemployment compensation claimants.

The award runs through December 31, 2028, with place of performance in Iowa. The recipient does not intend to pass funds to sub-recipients. This is a formula grant, with funding based on workload projections pursuant to economic assumptions and nationally developed workload estimates; additional quarterly funding draws on actual workloads.

Purpose

The purpose of this grant is to administer the state?s unemployment insurance program activities.

Activities

Funding provided to the state is for costs incurred for the operation of their unemployment insurance program. This includes the state?s unemployment insurance administrative workload and their ability to process claims. This also includes the operation of the state?s claimant systems as well as staffing levels and overhead costs.

Expected outcomes

The state is able to maintain or improve levels of performance regarding the timeliness and quality of processing unemployment insurance claims, as well as effectively handling improper payments. The state?s ability to identify fraudulent claims and reduce improper payment rates is maintained or improved.

Intended beneficiaries

Unemployment compensation claimants.

Subrecipient activities

The recipient does not intend to subaward funds.