Jewelers and precious stone and metal workers job market in Iowa

Industry trends, wages and hiring signals.

The headline

Industry employment fell while average weekly industry wages rose

A data-driven view of the industries that employ Jewelers and precious stone and metal workers in Iowa.

Verified QCEW 2026 Q1January to March 2026 · State coverage 100% · BLS QCEWCitationEvidence record

Occupation pay

What Jewelers and precious stone and metal workers earn in Iowa

BLS OEWS occupation-level pay estimates for this role — separate from the industry wage trends used elsewhere in this report.

BLS OEWS source

Median annual wage

$50,280Iowa
Middle 50% of published wages
$45,760 – $63,350
U.S. median annual wage
$52,540
Reference period
May 2025

The middle 50% is the 25th-to-75th percentile wage range, not an experience-level band. Suppressed or unavailable BLS values remain unpublished rather than being estimated.

Pay around Iowa

How median pay varies by metro area

Published BLS OEWS metro estimates for Jewelers and precious stone and metal workers, compared with the Iowa median of $50,280.

Iowa median$50,280
Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA$56,730+12.8% vs. state
Middle 50%$50,280 – $65,870Published employmentNot published
Omaha, NE-IA$55,000+9.4% vs. state
Middle 50%$42,210 – $60,270Published employment60

Areas are ordered by published median wage for readability, not as an overall job-market ranking. The vertical marker is the Iowa median. Some BLS metropolitan areas cross state lines, so a metro estimate can cover workers in more than one state.

Verified snapshot

Market at a Glance

Key changes in Iowa’s weighted industry mix.

-1.2%Industry employmentIowa industry employmentU.S. -0.9%vs. -0.9% U.S.
-1.0%Establishments in weighted industriesIowa establishments in weighted industriesU.S. +0.6%vs. +0.6% U.S.
+3.7%Avg. weekly industry wageIowa avg. weekly industry wageU.S. +3.6% · not occupation payvs. +3.6% U.S. · not occupation pay
-0.3 ppGap vs. U.S. industry employmentState minus U.S. industry employment change

Percentage-point gaps use the original published values and are rounded once; subtracting the rounded percentages can give a slightly different result.

Published coverage: 26,951 represented establishments, 89.09% of the published industry mix.

Local research

What the data shows for jewelers and precious stone and metal workers in Iowa

Findings describe the published observation periods shown below. Research published Oct 12, 2026.

This occupation is less concentrated in the state

Iowa's share of employment in jewelers and precious stone and metal workers differs from the national share in OEWS May 2025. The published location quotient of 0.70 expresses the state share as 0.70 times the national share. The state estimate is 160 jobs, 0.7% of the national employment estimate for this occupation. It represents 0.10 jobs per thousand jobs in the state's OEWS employment universe. The ratio describes employment concentration, not current hiring or future growth.

OEWS May 2025 · BLS OEWS

OEWS employment estimates describe covered wage-and-salary jobs and exclude self-employed workers; location quotients do not measure vacancies or worker demand.

Findings describe published data and do not establish causes. Methodology

Employment trends

Year-over-year change in the weighted industries. The U.S. line is the latest-quarter benchmark because a comparable national quarterly history is not published here.

Latest published values
  • Iowa · 2026 Q1-1.2%
  • U.S. · latest-quarter benchmark-0.9%

The chart will load automatically. Published values remain available in this report.

View every published value
Quarterly Iowa industry employment changes and coverage
QuarterIowaCoverage
2024 Q20.0%100%
2024 Q3-0.5%100%
2024 Q4-1.0%100%
2025 Q1-0.5%100%
2025 Q2-1.2%100%
2025 Q3-1.4%100%
2025 Q4-1.0%100%
2026 Q1-1.2%100%

How to read this chart

State trend and national reference

The solid line follows Iowa’s published year-over-year industry employment changes by quarter. The dashed U.S. line is a latest-quarter reference, not a second time series.

Published quarters
8
Earliest quarter
2024 Q2
Latest quarter
2026 Q1
U.S. benchmark
-0.9%

Quarters with no published value are omitted rather than interpolated.

Industry context

Where Jewelers and precious stone and metal workers Work

The occupation mix determines which Iowa industries are weighted into this view.

Industries weighted into the Iowa Jewelers and precious stone and metal workers context
Industry groupOccupation mixEmployment changeEstablishmentsAvg. weekly industry wage
Trade, transportation, and utilities64.9%-1.0%22,770$1,071
Manufacturing23.4%-2.2%4,181$1,581
Other services5.9%-0.9%7,502$985
Professional and business services4.0%+0.4%21,110$1,649
Financial activities0.9%-1.5%11,237$2,648

Which industries are growing?

One weighted industry is growing

Only weighted industries with a published positive Iowa employment change are listed.

  • Professional and business services+0.4%

The remaining weighted industries published a flat or negative change in January to March 2026.

Current Iowa context

Current Iowa Market Signals

Statewide indicators for all occupations in Iowa. They are not Jewelers and precious stone and metal workers demand and are not part of the Job Market Health score.

Statewide job postings

Indeed job postings · Iowa

Recent hiring-demand context · separate from the health score

115.8Postings index · February 1, 2020 = 100Observation: Oct 23, 2026
+15.8%Versus the February 2020 baseline
+2.0%Change over about four weeksSep 25, 2026 to Oct 23, 2026

Total postings index (seasonally adjusted) by observation date · baseline 100

The chart will load automatically. Published values remain available in this report.

View values: Indeed postings index
Indeed postings index
Observation dateIndex (Feb 2020 = 100)
Jul 24, 2026107.31
Jul 31, 2026108.21
Aug 7, 2026108.83
Aug 14, 2026108.94
Aug 21, 2026109.65
Aug 28, 2026110.06
Sep 4, 2026110.80
Sep 11, 2026112.20
Sep 18, 2026113.26
Sep 25, 2026113.58
Oct 2, 2026114.27
Oct 9, 2026115.04
Oct 16, 2026115.14
Oct 23, 2026115.80

This is statewide demand across all occupations, not demand for this specific job. Postings are not a count of vacancies or hires, and Indeed does not cover the entire labor market.

Source: Indeed Hiring Lab · CC BY 4.0. Seven-day average, seasonally adjusted; publisher refreshes weekly and may revise history. Retrieved Nov 1, 2026 · saved source copy. JobMarketHealth calculates the displayed changes and samples weekly observations for the chart.

Explore states and career fields · Methodology and limits

Statewide layoff notices

Statewide layoff-notice filings

Iowa statewide

21 notices in this source

Notice dates from Aug 5, 2026 to Nov 2, 2026 (UTC), a rolling 90-calendar-day period.

What this means: These are statewide totals from notices dated in this period in Iowa’s official tracking system. Reported positions are the counts published in those notices, not a count of people confirmed to have lost their jobs. No employer is identified.

Notices describe planned workforce changes, not confirmed job losses. Notices may be amended or withdrawn. This statewide context is not occupation-specific and does not affect the Job Market Health score. Iowa’s state tracking system also records smaller Rapid Response events that fall below federal WARN thresholds, so it is not a list of federal WARN filings only.

Iowa Workforce Development About WARN data

Source last checked

Career context

Related roles from the occupation’s published O*NET profile.

Questions answered by this release

Jewelers and precious stone and metal workers in Iowa FAQs

Each answer is limited to what QCEW 2026 Q1 actually publishes for this state.

Is employment growing for Jewelers and precious stone and metal workers in Iowa?

The available QCEW measure is not direct occupation employment. Employment across the Iowa industries weighted to Jewelers and precious stone and metal workers changed -1.2% year over year in January to March 2026, compared with -0.9% nationwide.

Are wages for Jewelers and precious stone and metal workers rising in Iowa?

QCEW does not publish pay for Jewelers and precious stone and metal workers in this view. Average weekly wages across the weighted industries changed +3.7% year over year; that must not be read as an occupation salary change.

How complete is this Iowa industry view?

The three core state trends each meet the site’s coverage floor; the minimum published coverage is 100% of the occupation’s industry mix.

Does this page show current Jewelers and precious stone and metal workers openings?

No. QCEW measures industry employment, establishments and wages. Any postings, news or WARN figures shown here are statewide context and are not occupation-specific openings.

Methodology & sourcesQCEW 2026 Q1 · coverage 100% · full evidence record

Methodology & Sources

Derived by JobMarketHealth from BLS QCEW + published occupation industry mix. This is occupation-weighted industry context, not direct occupation employment and not a count of current job openings.

Occupation
Jewelers and precious stone and metal workers
SOC code
51-9071
State
Iowa
QCEW release label
QCEW 2026 Q1
Data period
2026 Q1
State industry employment, year over year
-1.2%State data coverage 100%
U.S. benchmark, year over year
-0.9%
Difference from U.S. benchmark
-0.3 percentage pointsPercentage-point gaps use the original published values and are rounded once; subtracting the rounded percentages can give a slightly different result.
Establishments, year over year
-1.0%State data coverage 100%
Average weekly industry wage, year over year
+3.7%State data coverage 100%
Industry mix vintage
EP-2025-2035
BLS publication date
Aug 28, 2026
Source verification
Verified against the committed source snapshotVerified Sep 17, 2026
Canonical record URL
https://jobmarkethealth.com/occupations/jewelers-and-precious-stone-and-metal-workers/iowa#evidence-record
Derived by
JobMarketHealth from BLS QCEW + published occupation industry mix

Weighted industry conditions are not direct occupation employment, occupation wages, current openings or a state-level Job Market Health score. No causal explanation is inferred.

Jewelers and precious stone and metal workers in other states