ISU researcher: Younger worker loss restrains growth

An Iowa State University researcher says younger Iowans continue to flee rural communities, a trend that has serious future implications.

Dave Swenson, ISU professor of urban economics, says Iowans 25 to 49 years of age are moving to other states to take advantage of job opportunities.

“This is constraining our ability to grow,” Swenson told those attending Thursday's Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce “Breakfast of Champions” event at the Cedar Rapids Marriott.

“The children these young people have, or will have, in future years will not be living in rural Iowa,” Swenson said. “This ‘echo' 20 years from now will be profound.

“It will severely limit growth prospects for rural communities. It also will seriously affect their prospects for economic recovery.”

Swenson said Linn and Johnson counties are doing a better job of attracting and retaining younger workers because of job opportunities at employers like Rockwell Collins, the bioprocessing and food processing industries, and the University of Iowa. Unfortunately, the state as a whole does not offer enough job opportunities for younger Iowans, especially in the area of research and development, according to Swenson.

“We just cannot use all of our good talented workers. They have to go somewhere else,” he said. “It's not that we can't find the right people. We can't use them, so they leave.”

While agreeing that quality of life issues are important, Swenson said pay and an expectation of regional growth are top factors influencing younger workers to locate in a community.

“When it comes to attracting employers, you need to advertise that you have smart, hard-working people,” he said. “Companies that hire good, smart productive workers make far more money.”

While much has been made about the “green economy,” Swenson does not see energy production driving Iowa job growth in future years.

“All of the ethanol plants built since 2004 created a total of about 1,200 jobs,” he said. “You can put up a lot of wind turbines, but it only requires one person to monitor 10 or 15 of them.”

Swenson said efforts should continue to develop a “Corridor economy.”

“You have an incredible symbioses and potential for growth,” he said. “Each end of the Corridor has a different native labor pool, yet each of you need each other. Cedar Rapids has a heck of a stake in Iowa City's well-being and Iowa City has an equal stake in the vitality of Cedar Rapids.”

The steep loss of Iowa manufacturing jobs in the current recession will take many years to rebuild, Swenson said. He noted that it took five years after the last recession for the state's manufacturing employment to recover.