The Iowa Business Council’s 2nd quarter Economic Outlook Survey just came out.
Elliott Smith, Executive Director, says the survey indicates some positive sentiment by business leaders in the state for the rest of this year.
He says the survey tracks sales, capital spending and employment.
Smith says then the Iowa Business Council asks executives and CEOs to look ahead six months and tell them what they think is coming down the road for each of their respective businesses.
"Actually the sales and capital spending numbers didn’t move. And that’s good news because both of those numbers were in pretty positive sentiment territory so we are happy with that outcome. What was a pleasant surprise was the degree to which the employment number moved up significantly. And it established an historical high for our survey.”
Smith says typically employment is a trailing indicator, one that doesn’t grow as fast as sales and capital spending.
Now that employment is taking off, he says that bodes well for optimism by businesses for the rest of the year.