Data / Rankings / Civilian labor force / Cities in Iowa

Cities in Iowa by civilian labor force

Des Moines, IA had the highest civilian labor force of 21 cities in 2018, at 120,400. Clinton, IA had the lowest, at 11,461. The median was 32,000. Source: the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Keep it in a collection in your library.
Highest120,400Des Moines, IA
Lowest11,461Clinton, IA
Median32,00021 cities

All cities, 2018

Des Moines, IA: 120,400 personsDes Moines, IA120,400Cedar Rapids, IA: 77,179 personsCedar Rapids, IA77,179Davenport, IA: 53,295 personsDavenport, IA53,295Sioux City, IA: 45,481 personsSioux City, IA45,481Iowa City, IA: 44,109 personsIowa City, IA44,109West Des Moines, IA: 39,935 personsWest Des Moines, IA39,935Ankeny, IA: 36,912 personsAnkeny, IA36,912Ames, IA: 36,401 personsAmes, IA36,401Waterloo, IA: 34,650 personsWaterloo, IA34,650Dubuque, IA: 32,257 personsDubuque, IA32,257Council Bluffs, IA: 32,000 personsCouncil Bluffs, IA32,000Urbandale, IA: 24,294 personsUrbandale, IA24,294Cedar Falls, IA: 23,837 personsCedar Falls, IA23,837Marion, IA: 22,082 personsMarion, IA22,082Bettendorf, IA: 20,193 personsBettendorf, IA20,193Mason City, IA: 15,244 personsMason City, IA15,244Marshalltown, IA: 13,677 personsMarshalltown, IA13,677Ottumwa, IA: 13,081 personsOttumwa, IA13,081Burlington, IA: 12,314 personsBurlington, IA12,314Fort Dodge, IA: 11,917 personsFort Dodge, IA11,917Clinton, IA: 11,461 personsClinton, IA11,461Des Moines, IA: 120,400 personsDes Moines, IA120,400Cedar Rapids, IA: 77,179 personsCedar Rapids, IA77,179Davenport, IA: 53,295 personsDavenport, IA53,295Sioux City, IA: 45,481 personsSioux City, IA45,481Iowa City, IA: 44,109 personsIowa City, IA44,109West Des Moines, IA: 39,935 personsWest Des Moines, IA39,935Ankeny, IA: 36,912 personsAnkeny, IA36,912Ames, IA: 36,401 personsAmes, IA36,401Waterloo, IA: 34,650 personsWaterloo, IA34,650Dubuque, IA: 32,257 personsDubuque, IA32,257Council Bluffs, IA: 32,000 personsCouncil Bluffs, IA32,000Urbandale, IA: 24,294 personsUrbandale, IA24,294Cedar Falls, IA: 23,837 personsCedar Falls, IA23,837Marion, IA: 22,082 personsMarion, IA22,082Bettendorf, IA: 20,193 personsBettendorf, IA20,193Mason City, IA: 15,244 personsMason City, IA15,244Marshalltown, IA: 13,677 personsMarshalltown, IA13,677Ottumwa, IA: 13,081 personsOttumwa, IA13,081Burlington, IA: 12,314 personsBurlington, IA12,314Fort Dodge, IA: 11,917 personsFort Dodge, IA11,917Clinton, IA: 11,461 personsClinton, IA11,461
persons. Source: BLS, Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: labor force (measure 06), annual average. Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Full ranking

RankCities2018
persons		Change on 2017
1Des Moines, IA120,400+0.2%
2Cedar Rapids, IA77,179+1.4%
3Davenport, IA53,295+0.9%
4Sioux City, IA45,481+1.2%
5Iowa City, IA44,109-0.3%
6West Des Moines, IA39,935+2.5%
7Ankeny, IA36,912+5.7%
8Ames, IA36,401+1.2%
9Waterloo, IA34,650+1.1%
10Dubuque, IA32,257+1.3%
11Council Bluffs, IA32,000+0.3%
12Urbandale, IA24,294+1.7%
13Cedar Falls, IA23,837+0.7%
14Marion, IA22,082+2.5%
15Bettendorf, IA20,193+2.6%
16Mason City, IA15,244+0.3%
17Marshalltown, IA13,677-0.6%
18Ottumwa, IA13,081+0.4%
19Burlington, IA12,314-0.9%
20Fort Dodge, IA11,917-0.7%
21Clinton, IA11,461-2.1%

Other periods

About this ranking

Employed plus unemployed residents, annual average.

More on how it is measured
  • People aged 16 and over by place of residence, from the Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) program of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
  • Active-duty military personnel and people living in institutions are excluded.

United States cities only for now. Counts people where they live, not jobs: for wage and salary jobs by state use oews_employment. BLS estimates cities by splitting county estimates with Census Bureau employment and population data and unemployment insurance claims, so city figures are less precise than state ones. BLS publishes cities of 25,000 or more, and smaller cities in New England.

Every value in the ranking comes from the same publisher and the same period, so the cities are compared on one definition. 2 cities with data in other periods have no value for 2018 and are left out rather than filled from another source. Equal values share a rank.

How to cite

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: labor force (measure 06), annual average. https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU15-19. Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Citation styles

The publisher is the author. Invokely is named only as the place the figures were read, where a style asks for it.

APA 7

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2026). Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: labor force (measure 06), annual average (Cities in Iowa by civilian labor force, 2018) [Data set]. Retrieved October 12, 2026, from https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU15-19

MLA 9

Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: labor force (measure 06), annual average, Cities in Iowa by civilian labor force, 2018. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 30 Sept. 2026, https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU15-19. Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/civilian-labor-force/iowa-cities?period=2018. Accessed 12 Oct. 2026.

Chicago (author-date)

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2026. Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: labor force (measure 06), annual average. Cities in Iowa by civilian labor force, 2018. Dataset. Accessed October 12, 2026. https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU15-19. Also distributed by Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/civilian-labor-force/iowa-cities?period=2018.

Harvard

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2026) Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: labor force (measure 06), annual average, Cities in Iowa by civilian labor force, 2018 [Dataset]. Available at: https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU15-19, via Invokely: https://invokely.ai/rankings/civilian-labor-force/iowa-cities?period=2018 (Accessed: 12 October 2026).

BibTeX
@misc{bureau_cities_in_iowa_by_2018,
  author = {{U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics}},
  title = {{Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: labor force (measure 06), annual average: Cities in Iowa by civilian labor force, 2018}},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Data set},
  url = {https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU15-19},
  urldate = {2026-10-12},
  note = {Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/civilian-labor-force/iowa-cities?period=2018. Publisher attribution: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: labor force (measure 06), annual average. https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU15-19. Retrieved 2026-10-12.},
}
RIS
TY  - DATA
AU  - U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
TI  - Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: labor force (measure 06), annual average: Cities in Iowa by civilian labor force, 2018
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/30
PB  - U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
DB  - Invokely
UR  - https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU15-19
L2  - https://invokely.ai/rankings/civilian-labor-force/iowa-cities?period=2018
Y2  - 2026/10/12
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/civilian-labor-force/iowa-cities?period=2018.
N1  - Publisher attribution: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: labor force (measure 06), annual average. https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU15-19. Retrieved 2026-10-12.
ER  -
Embed this chart

Paste this code into a web page or a blog post. The chart shows the latest figures as they are published, with the source and a link back to this page.

Sites that read oEmbed links, such as WordPress, can show the chart when you paste the link to this page.

Use this data in your AI agent

Invokely serves this figure to AI assistants through MCP and to code through a REST API, with the source and citation attached. Ask your assistant:

Rank Cities in Iowa by civilian labor force using official data, and cite the source.
rank_places {"indicator":"civilian_labor_force","level":"municipality","within":"Iowa","limit":10}
GET https://invokely.ai/api/v1/rank?indicator=civilian_labor_force&level=municipality&within=Iowa&limit=10

Connect Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor in one step. The trial answers 25 calls a day without an account.

Questions

Which city has the highest civilian labor force?

Des Moines, IA, with 120,400 in 2018, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Which city has the lowest civilian labor force?

Clinton, IA, with 11,461 in 2018.

Where does this ranking come from?

Every value comes from one source and one period, so the places are comparable: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: labor force (measure 06), annual average. Retrieved 2026-10-12. 2 cities have no value for 2018 and are not ranked.

Civilian labor force: other rankings

Cities in Iowa: more rankings