Data / Rankings / Employed residents / Cities in Iowa

Cities in Iowa by employed residents

Des Moines, IA had the highest employed residents of 21 cities in 2016, at 116,098. Clinton, IA had the lowest, at 11,429. The median was 30,887. Source: the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Keep it in a collection in your library.
Highest116,098Des Moines, IA
Lowest11,429Clinton, IA
Median30,88721 cities

All cities, 2016

Des Moines, IA: 116,098 personsDes Moines, IA116,098Cedar Rapids, IA: 73,564 personsCedar Rapids, IA73,564Davenport, IA: 50,616 personsDavenport, IA50,616Sioux City, IA: 44,811 personsSioux City, IA44,811Iowa City, IA: 42,778 personsIowa City, IA42,778West Des Moines, IA: 37,555 personsWest Des Moines, IA37,555Ames, IA: 34,960 personsAmes, IA34,960Waterloo, IA: 32,893 personsWaterloo, IA32,893Ankeny, IA: 32,155 personsAnkeny, IA32,155Council Bluffs, IA: 31,322 personsCouncil Bluffs, IA31,322Dubuque, IA: 30,887 personsDubuque, IA30,887Cedar Falls, IA: 23,304 personsCedar Falls, IA23,304Urbandale, IA: 23,071 personsUrbandale, IA23,071Marion, IA: 20,845 personsMarion, IA20,845Bettendorf, IA: 18,949 personsBettendorf, IA18,949Mason City, IA: 14,622 personsMason City, IA14,622Marshalltown, IA: 13,783 personsMarshalltown, IA13,783Ottumwa, IA: 12,548 personsOttumwa, IA12,548Fort Dodge, IA: 12,157 personsFort Dodge, IA12,157Burlington, IA: 12,063 personsBurlington, IA12,063Clinton, IA: 11,429 personsClinton, IA11,429Des Moines, IA: 116,098 personsDes Moines, IA116,098Cedar Rapids, IA: 73,564 personsCedar Rapids, IA73,564Davenport, IA: 50,616 personsDavenport, IA50,616Sioux City, IA: 44,811 personsSioux City, IA44,811Iowa City, IA: 42,778 personsIowa City, IA42,778West Des Moines, IA: 37,555 personsWest Des Moines, IA37,555Ames, IA: 34,960 personsAmes, IA34,960Waterloo, IA: 32,893 personsWaterloo, IA32,893Ankeny, IA: 32,155 personsAnkeny, IA32,155Council Bluffs, IA: 31,322 personsCouncil Bluffs, IA31,322Dubuque, IA: 30,887 personsDubuque, IA30,887Cedar Falls, IA: 23,304 personsCedar Falls, IA23,304Urbandale, IA: 23,071 personsUrbandale, IA23,071Marion, IA: 20,845 personsMarion, IA20,845Bettendorf, IA: 18,949 personsBettendorf, IA18,949Mason City, IA: 14,622 personsMason City, IA14,622Marshalltown, IA: 13,783 personsMarshalltown, IA13,783Ottumwa, IA: 12,548 personsOttumwa, IA12,548Fort Dodge, IA: 12,157 personsFort Dodge, IA12,157Burlington, IA: 12,063 personsBurlington, IA12,063Clinton, IA: 11,429 personsClinton, IA11,429
persons. Source: BLS, Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: employment (measure 05), annual average. Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Full ranking

RankCities2016
persons		Change on 2015
1Des Moines, IA116,098+10.5%
2Cedar Rapids, IA73,564+6.4%
3Davenport, IA50,616+3.9%
4Sioux City, IA44,811+3.2%
5Iowa City, IA42,778+2.7%
6West Des Moines, IA37,555+1.6%
7Ames, IA34,960-9.4%
8Waterloo, IA32,893+0.1%
9Ankeny, IA32,155+2.1%
10Council Bluffs, IA31,322+1.2%
11Dubuque, IA30,887-3.9%
12Cedar Falls, IA23,304+5.6%
13Urbandale, IA23,071-6.2%
14Marion, IA20,845+7.6%
15Bettendorf, IA18,949+8.8%
16Mason City, IA14,622+4.2%
17Marshalltown, IA13,783+15.5%
18Ottumwa, IA12,548+7.1%
19Fort Dodge, IA12,157-2.1%
20Burlington, IA12,063-0.4%
21Clinton, IA11,429-5.4%

Other periods

About this ranking

Residents who did any work for pay or profit in the reference week, or were temporarily absent from a job, 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, whatever the place of work, and someone with two jobs counts once. 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 2016 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: employment (measure 05), 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: employment (measure 05), annual average (Cities in Iowa by employed residents, 2016) [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: employment (measure 05), annual average, Cities in Iowa by employed residents, 2016. 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/employed-residents/iowa-cities?period=2016. Accessed 12 Oct. 2026.

Chicago (author-date)

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2026. Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: employment (measure 05), annual average. Cities in Iowa by employed residents, 2016. 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/employed-residents/iowa-cities?period=2016.

Harvard

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2026) Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: employment (measure 05), annual average, Cities in Iowa by employed residents, 2016 [Dataset]. Available at: https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU15-19, via Invokely: https://invokely.ai/rankings/employed-residents/iowa-cities?period=2016 (Accessed: 12 October 2026).

BibTeX
@misc{bureau_cities_in_iowa_by_2016,
  author = {{U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics}},
  title = {{Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: employment (measure 05), annual average: Cities in Iowa by employed residents, 2016}},
  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/employed-residents/iowa-cities?period=2016. Publisher attribution: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: employment (measure 05), 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: employment (measure 05), annual average: Cities in Iowa by employed residents, 2016
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/employed-residents/iowa-cities?period=2016
Y2  - 2026/10/12
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/employed-residents/iowa-cities?period=2016.
N1  - Publisher attribution: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: employment (measure 05), 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 employed residents using official data, and cite the source.
rank_places {"indicator":"employed_residents","level":"municipality","within":"Iowa","limit":10}
GET https://invokely.ai/api/v1/rank?indicator=employed_residents&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 employed residents?

Des Moines, IA, with 116,098 in 2016, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Which city has the lowest employed residents?

Clinton, IA, with 11,429 in 2016.

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: employment (measure 05), annual average. Retrieved 2026-10-12. 2 cities have no value for 2016 and are not ranked.

Employed residents: other rankings

Cities in Iowa: more rankings