Photo: Kevin Fleming / Corbis Documentary / Getty Images
(Des Moines, IA) -- Iowa's economic outlook to start the year is looking better than expected, though more workers are needed.
"We really need to grow our state's population, we're seeing a declining labor force participation rate over the past several months," said Joe Murphy, with the Iowa Business Council. He says one of the biggest goals is getting recently graduated students to stay in the state.
"We need to make sure that we're retaining our college graduates, our community college graduates, our high school graduates, and make sure we're employing them right away in Iowa's companies and Iowa's workforce opportunities," Murphy said, "and then beyond that, recruiting new Iowans into our state."
The Business Council says an unfavorable business climate (national supply chain, infrastructure, federal regulations) was listed as the top primary business challenge cited by 63% of those surveyed. Inflation was cited by at least 50% of survey participants and workforce attraction and retention was cited by 44%. Still, Murphy says their projected growth for the first six months of 2025 is well above the historical average.
"When you look at the overall outlook for the State of Iowa, we have a lot of really great things going across our survey. Every indicator was trending in the positive direction."
The survey shows, sales expectations increased 8.75 points to a value of 68.75. Capital spending expectations increased 7.81 points to a value of 64.06. Employment expectations increased by 10.31 points to a value of 64.06