Statewide Iowa — (RI) — A Creighton University survey shows Iowa’s economy improved slightly during December, as did economic conditions in the nine-state Midwestern region.
Creighton economist Ernie Goss says the boosts were very modest, but both the state and the region strengthened from below growth-neutral in November to just above that mid-point in December.
Thanks, in part, to the year-end holidays, hiring across the region improved dramatically from November to December. Goss says business leaders and supply managers were asked what they anticipated would be the biggest problem in the year ahead.
Iowa Workforce Development says the state’s unemployment rate in November was two-point-six percent, one of the lowest in the nation, while the U-S jobless rate was three-point-five percent.
For all of 2019, Iowa’s overall economy ranked seventh in economic performance among the nine Midwestern states. Goss predicts for the first half of 2020, Iowa will improve to sixth.
