(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Economic Development Authority Director Debi Durham says in today’s economy — and with a limited pool of workers as Iowa’s population ages — state incentives for manufacturers are being focused on the quality of jobs that would be created rather than on the number of jobs.

“What we’re really interested in…is automation,” Durham said, “because if we’re going to increase productivity, if we’re going to make ourselves continue to be relevant, when we know that we have this very shrunken pipeline coming in from talent, we have to do things differently.” Automation is having a big impact in the pharmaceutical industry, for example, and Durham says she’s visiting companies in places like India that are making prescription and over-the-counter medications.

“I know the tariff stuff has been challenging on one hand, but I will tell you as the Trump Administration is resetting the table on our on trade agreements it is having an impact because they all know that if they want to do business in the United States they need to have a presence in the United States,” Durham said. ” and when you think about it during COVID when you couldn’t get amoxicillin for your grandkids because we don’t manufacture that here any more and we have outsourced it to countries that are not our friend, we need reclaim all of that.”

Durham says automation not only increases productivity and improves work flow, it improves safety in industries like food production. “You can see that a lot of the stuff that’s being automated are those things where they tend to have more worker comp claims because it’s highly repetitive,” Durham said, “or basically injury prone.” Durham says manufacturing plants will still need people, but will have more limited staff and the state is preparing for a future dominated by artificial intelligence and automation.

Durham made her comments at the Iowa Taxpayers Association annual symposium.