Iowa's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is up again -- now at 4 percent for December 2007 -- and has officials pointing to ripples from the housing crisis. "The statewide unemployment rate followed the national trend in December, and increased to the highest level for the year," said Elisabeth Buck, director of Workforce Development. "The current month's data suggest that the housing slowdown is starting to have a wider impact on the Iowa economy." ... Iowa's numbers still fall well below the posted 5 percent national unemployment rate for December. A year earlier the national rate was 4.6 percent.