By Dar Danielson (Radio Iowa)

The Iowa Business Council’s third-quarter Economic Outlook Survey of members shows an overall positive economic outlook.

IBC president Joe Murphy says that’s good news after concerns raised in the last survey. “And so to bounce back from that volatility, have some pretty steady and consistent reporting from our members, I think is a really good sign for some certainty being cleared up, and for some of those maybe more persistent issues, particularly inflation, beginning to become under better control as we as we start the fourth quarter here,” Murphy says.

The survey asks members about expectations for sales, capital spending and employment in the next six months. All three were positive. “You look at our capital spending expectations, in particular, anything above 50 points registers as positive, and we were up 2.3 points to finish at 56 and a quarter — above that 50 point threshold — so very positive on that,” he says. Murphy says the survey came before the Fed Reserve cut interest rates, so that numbers would likely be a little higher.

Murphy says the union dock strike that just began is something they will be watching. With the dock strike now in full effect on the east coast of the United States, going all the way down to Texas, that gives us some greater sense of uncertainty, once again, particularly with respect to inflation,” he says. Murphy says the strike comes as members for the first time since 2021 did not list inflation as one of their tops concerns. “The fact that we’re having some challenges to put it mildly, on our ports again, obviously, not only will result in some inflationary pressure, but also, unfortunately, have a pretty big negative impact on supply chain scenarios, which is always at the forefront of our members minds,” Murphy says.

He says the strike is just the latest in what seems like a “whack a mole” combination of issues that businesses have faced and overcome. “To start the fourth quarter in such positive territory, to weather some of the very strong inflationary pressures of the last three or four years, continuing to work on our workforce initiatives to bring in more people to the state of Iowa and retain more of our young population. All of these things are going in the right direction,” he says.

The Iowa Business Council is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization whose 22 members are the chief decision makers of major Iowa employers.