Iowa expected to add jobs in months ahead

After declining for five straight months, Iowa's Business Conditions Index rose to 53.4 in December from a tepid 50.1 in November.

The monthly measure of economic activity, compiled by Ernie Goss, director of Creighton University's Economic Forecasting Group, is based on survey of supply managers in the region.

Components of the index were new orders at 51.6, production or sales at 49.2, delivery lead time at 66.4, employment at 53.4, and inventories at 46.6.

'For 2014, Iowa's leading industry was insurance, while its lagging industry was fabricated metal production,” Goss said. 'Based on our survey results, I expect Iowa to add jobs at a positive pace for the first half of the year, but with pullbacks in exports restraining growth,”

The Mid-America Business Conditions Index for December, which covers a nine-state region stretching from North Dakota to Arkansas, also registered a jump to 54.4 from November's 51.3.

'Over the past six months, a 26 percent decline in grain prices and a 13 percent plunge in fuel and related products have had negative impacts on businesses with ties to agriculture and energy,” Goss said. 'At the same time, these price declines have produced positive impacts for firms more closely tied to the consumer.

'Businesses linked to agriculture and energy are experiencing weaker hiring conditions. Companies tied to consumer spending report expanding hiring.”

Goss said export sales in the region have been impacted negatively as the value of the dollar has risen by more than 10 percent against the currencies of the nation's chief trading partners.

'This movement has made goods from the United States less competitively priced abroad and foreign goods more cheaply priced in the U.S.,” he said.