The Midwest economy may be faltering a bit on the way to recovery, but Creighton University economist Ernie Goss says his monthly survey finds Iowa the best-off state in the region. His September survey of Midwest business managers points to a “real slowdown,” and, he thinks, the potential to re-enter the recession we just pulled out of. Goss says Iowa benefiting from good building weather. There was more construction in September than in prior months, and he thinks Iowa’s doing better than some neighboring states, with numbers higher than growth-neutral pointing to continued improvement in the months ahead. Goss says the turnaround isn’t as strong as he’s expected. Normally coming out of a recession, he said we’d expect to see numbers even better than this, and in Iowa as in other midwest states the reason seems to be employment numbers. Dr Goss says businesses are seeing production levels up somewhat, yet despite improving economic conditions they still are not hiring more workers. In fact, he says we’re seeing more layoffs in Iowa and the rest of the region as businesses try working their employees more overtime hours and increasing their productivity. Goss says based on his monthly business index, the recession isn’t returning but recovery is slowing.
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