Though employment is lower in the state of Iowa in the first quarter of the year, capital spending has remained steady and the sales forecast is on the rise.
Elliott Smith, Executive Director for the Iowa Business Council, says the first economic outlook survey for 2014 was released on March 3rd.
Smith says the large corporate employers in the state generally had a status quo outlook for the coming six months.
"Sales ticked up a little bit, moved up 5 points on our 100 point scale to 68. Capital spending stayed level at 61. And employment dropped a few points to 57. Anything above 50 is considered positive sentiment and expectations are good if that’s the case. And we are still in positive sentiment territory for all three measures.”
Smith says the numbers mean fairly positive expectations with regard to business activity in the state for the next six months.