An Iowa State University report on Iowa’s job growth confirms the increase in non-farm jobs in Iowa. David Swenson is one of the researchers in the I-S-U Economics Department who conducted the report covering 1987 to 1997.He says Iowa’s gone against the national trend by creating more manufacturing jobs. Swenson says manufacturing jobs are shifting out of Iowa’s big cities into rural and smaller urban counties.Swenson says the shift is due to several factors including the cheaper cost of building a plant in rural counties. He says while the number of manufacturing jobs has increased, the wages paid to workers have been slipping since the 1970’s.Swenson says the upside to the manufacturing growth is it helps stabilize communities that may have once depended on agriculture.Swenson says while new manufacturing plants may stabilize the economy in a community, it’s not translating into population growth as he says workers are more likely now to commute to their job and live in a community miles away from where there plant is located.
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