Iowa manufacturers expect increased sales in third quarter, survey shows

Almost three-quarters of respondents expect to add employees

Jun. 30, 2021 4:40 pm

A Kinze Manufacturing receiving worker guides steel tubes off a truck at Kinze Manufacturing in Williamsburg, Iowa, in 2015. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

Iowa manufacturers expect sales to increase in the third quarter, according to an Iowa Association of Business and Industry survey released Monday.

About 79 percent of respondents expect growth in sales in the upcoming quarter, an increase from 65 percent ahead of the second quarter. Seventy-two percent anticipate increasing their total number of employees, which is up from 45 percent in the previous quarter.

The survey, conducted in early June, polled Iowa ABI board members. About half of the 1,500 companies represented by Iowa ABI are in manufacturing.

“The optimism that Iowa manufacturers have is encouraging news for all Iowans,” said Mike Ralston, Iowa ABI’s president, in a news release.

“These latest results and the anticipation of continued growth show our economy is moving in the right direction.”

Ralston said the results also highlight the manufacturing industry’s ongoing challenge hiring enough employees despite already offering “competitive salaries and benefits.”

Iowa’s manufacturers are experiencing the same trends manufacturers nationwide are seeing,“ Ralston said.

”There is an ongoing labor shortage,“ he said

Comments: (319) 398-8394; john.steppe@thegazette.com