(Radio Iowa) – The latest survey of Iowa’s largest employers finds they have a positive outlook about the state of Iowa’s economy. Iowa Business Council President Joe Murphy says that sentiment from the leaders of Iowa’s largest companies is largely based on sales. “Even though our sales expectations declined by about a point-and-a-half from the first quarter survey, our indicator there still is more than 20 points higher than the positive threshold metric of 50 points,” Murphy says, “so clocking in at more than 70 points on sales expectations is incredibly significant as we head into the second half of the year.”
The Iowa Business Council’s overall “Economic Outlook Survey” is four points higher than its historical average. Murphy says capital spending and employment expectations are basically unchanged from the first to the second quarter. “I think when we get some concern is when we see almost a yo-yo effect where we go up and down in very high intervals, quarter to quarter. That’s not what we’re seeing here,” Murphy says. “Companies are still investing in their overall business structure.”
Sixty-one percent of the executives surveyed said attracting and retaining a quality workforce is a priority. “Almost 40% of them are expecting to hire more people, in fact,” Murphy said, “and only a very small subset, about 5%, are expecting lower hirings over the course of the next six months.” Iowa’s labor market is also a concern. Murphy says the long-term challenge is based on Iowa’s population. “We continue to not grow at a rate that we should be growing,” Murphy said. “We continue to see young, college-educated individuals leave this state and we have to do a much better job of retaining those individuals and offering them employment in this state in order to launch their career.”
Twenty-two of the state’s largest companies — employing over 156-thousand Iowans — make up the Iowa Business Council.
