Overall, 2014 was a better year in terms of the number of people without a job in the Raccoon River Valley.

According to Iowa Workforce Development, Dallas County’s year-to-date unemployment last year ended up at 3.5 percent or 0.2 percent lower than the year before.

Greene County’s unemployment rate was down 0.4 percent overall compared to 2013 and Guthrie County saw a 0.5 percent decrease.

In December, Dallas County’s rate went up slightly to three percent versus 2.8 percent in November.  Greene County saw a 0.4 percent increase to four percent and the percentage of Guthrie County residents without a job went up just slightly to 3.9 percent in December.