Data / Rankings / Employed residents / Cities in Iowa

Cities in Iowa by employed residents

Des Moines, IA had the highest employed residents of 22 cities in 2021, at 109,695. Clinton, IA had the lowest, at 10,376. The median was 26,556. Source: the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Keep it in a collection in your library.
Highest109,695Des Moines, IA
Lowest10,376Clinton, IA
Median26,55622 cities

All cities, 2021

Des Moines, IA: 109,695 personsDes Moines, IA109,695Cedar Rapids, IA: 71,831 personsCedar Rapids, IA71,831Davenport, IA: 49,258 personsDavenport, IA49,258Sioux City, IA: 42,904 personsSioux City, IA42,904Iowa City, IA: 40,931 personsIowa City, IA40,931West Des Moines, IA: 39,681 personsWest Des Moines, IA39,681Ankeny, IA: 38,321 personsAnkeny, IA38,321Ames, IA: 34,836 personsAmes, IA34,836Waterloo, IA: 31,958 personsWaterloo, IA31,958Dubuque, IA: 30,100 personsDubuque, IA30,100Council Bluffs, IA: 29,701 personsCouncil Bluffs, IA29,701Urbandale, IA: 23,410 personsUrbandale, IA23,410Cedar Falls, IA: 22,363 personsCedar Falls, IA22,363Marion, IA: 21,051 personsMarion, IA21,051Bettendorf, IA: 19,298 personsBettendorf, IA19,298Waukee, IA: 14,301 personsWaukee, IA14,301Mason City, IA: 13,988 personsMason City, IA13,988Marshalltown, IA: 12,229 personsMarshalltown, IA12,229Ottumwa, IA: 11,741 personsOttumwa, IA11,741Fort Dodge, IA: 10,901 personsFort Dodge, IA10,901Burlington, IA: 10,833 personsBurlington, IA10,833Clinton, IA: 10,376 personsClinton, IA10,376Des Moines, IA: 109,695 personsDes Moines, IA109,695Cedar Rapids, IA: 71,831 personsCedar Rapids, IA71,831Davenport, IA: 49,258 personsDavenport, IA49,258Sioux City, IA: 42,904 personsSioux City, IA42,904Iowa City, IA: 40,931 personsIowa City, IA40,931West Des Moines, IA: 39,681 personsWest Des Moines, IA39,681Ankeny, IA: 38,321 personsAnkeny, IA38,321Ames, IA: 34,836 personsAmes, IA34,836Waterloo, IA: 31,958 personsWaterloo, IA31,958Dubuque, IA: 30,100 personsDubuque, IA30,100Council Bluffs, IA: 29,701 personsCouncil Bluffs, IA29,701Urbandale, IA: 23,410 personsUrbandale, IA23,410Cedar Falls, IA: 22,363 personsCedar Falls, IA22,363Marion, IA: 21,051 personsMarion, IA21,051Bettendorf, IA: 19,298 personsBettendorf, IA19,298Waukee, IA: 14,301 personsWaukee, IA14,301Mason City, IA: 13,988 personsMason City, IA13,988Marshalltown, IA: 12,229 personsMarshalltown, IA12,229Ottumwa, IA: 11,741 personsOttumwa, IA11,741Fort Dodge, IA: 10,901 personsFort Dodge, IA10,901Burlington, IA: 10,833 personsBurlington, IA10,833Clinton, IA: 10,376 personsClinton, IA10,376
persons. Source: BLS, Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: employment (measure 05), annual average. Retrieved 2026-10-12.

Full ranking

RankCities2021
persons		Change on 2020
1Des Moines, IA109,695+1.6%
2Cedar Rapids, IA71,831+1.5%
3Davenport, IA49,258+2.1%
4Sioux City, IA42,904+2.7%
5Iowa City, IA40,931+0.8%
6West Des Moines, IA39,681+3.6%
7Ankeny, IA38,321+5.3%
8Ames, IA34,836+2%
9Waterloo, IA31,958+1.4%
10Dubuque, IA30,100+1.7%
11Council Bluffs, IA29,701+0.9%
12Urbandale, IA23,410+3.1%
13Cedar Falls, IA22,363+1.8%
14Marion, IA21,051+2.2%
15Bettendorf, IA19,298+3.3%
16Waukee, IA14,301n/a
17Mason City, IA13,988-1%
18Marshalltown, IA12,2290%
19Ottumwa, IA11,741-1.1%
20Fort Dodge, IA10,901+0.8%
21Burlington, IA10,833+0.7%
22Clinton, IA10,376+1.5%

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. 1 cities with data in other periods have no value for 2021 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.CurrentU20-24. 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, 2021) [Data set]. Retrieved October 12, 2026, from https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU20-24

MLA 9

Local Area Unemployment Statistics, cities and towns, not seasonally adjusted: employment (measure 05), annual average, Cities in Iowa by employed residents, 2021. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 30 Sept. 2026, https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU20-24. Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/employed-residents/iowa-cities?period=2021. 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, 2021. Dataset. Accessed October 12, 2026. https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU20-24. Also distributed by Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/employed-residents/iowa-cities?period=2021.

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, 2021 [Dataset]. Available at: https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU20-24, via Invokely: https://invokely.ai/rankings/employed-residents/iowa-cities?period=2021 (Accessed: 12 October 2026).

BibTeX
@misc{bureau_cities_in_iowa_by_2021,
  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, 2021}},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Data set},
  url = {https://download.bls.gov/pub/time.series/la/la.data.0.CurrentU20-24},
  urldate = {2026-10-12},
  note = {Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/employed-residents/iowa-cities?period=2021. 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.CurrentU20-24. 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, 2021
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.CurrentU20-24
L2  - https://invokely.ai/rankings/employed-residents/iowa-cities?period=2021
Y2  - 2026/10/12
N1  - Accessed via Invokely, https://invokely.ai/rankings/employed-residents/iowa-cities?period=2021.
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.CurrentU20-24. 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 109,695 in 2021, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Which city has the lowest employed residents?

Clinton, IA, with 10,376 in 2021.

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. 1 cities have no value for 2021 and are not ranked.

Employed residents: other rankings

Cities in Iowa: more rankings