A University of Iowa economist says Iowa’s economy has bottomed out and Iowans’ personal income has started growing again. Charles Whiteman of the U-of-I’s Institute for Economic Research, is a member of the Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors.
“We turned up Iowa in personal income in terms of growth in the fourth quarters, but employment still hasn’t turned up, so we’re waiting for that,” Whiteman says. “Our forecast suggests that’s going to happen about mid-year. so we’re still losing jobs — not as rapidly as before — and we think that’ll turn around in the next few months.”
State tax collections — another economic indicator — were down about 6.5% in February compared to the same month a year ago. Whiteman says three months ago, he thought state tax receipts would have started growing by now because December was a pretty good month in terms of state tax collections, but January and February weren’t.
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