Iowa has lost 13,000 manufacturing jobs

CEDAR RAPIDS - Durable goods producers in Iowa, including agriculture machinery manufacturers and metal manufacturing, are shedding jobs at a slow pace, according to a survey of Iowa purchasing managers.

'With recent pullbacks, compared with pre-recession levels, this heavy manufacturing sector has lost more than 13,000 jobs,” said Ernie Goss, director of Creighton University's Economic Forecasting Group. 'Average weekly wages for all Iowa workers, according to the BLS, have grown by 1.8 percent over the past year.”

Iowa's Business Conditions Index, compiled monthly by Crighton's Economic Forecasting Group, climbed to 52.6 in February from January's 52.2.

Readings above 50 indicate an expanding economy while those below 50 signal a declining economy.

The Business Conditions Index for the nine-state region in the upper Midwest rose to 57 last month from January's 54.8. The regional index, much like the national reading, is pointing to improving growth for the first half of 2015.

'However, areas of the region linked closely to the energy sector, including ethanol, are experiencing pullbacks in economic activity,” Goss said. 'Businesses linked to agriculture and energy are laying off workers as firms outside these two sectors are expanding hiring at a positive pace.”

The new export orders index sank to 54.4 in February from 57 in January. The import index for February slipped to 52.7 from January's 52.8.

'Over the past six months, the value of the U.S. dollar has risen dramatically against the currencies of our chief trading partners,” Goss said. 'This movement has made U.S. goods less competitively priced abroad and foreign goods more cheaply priced in the U.S.

'Despite this, the new export orders index were at a solid level for February. I do expect exports and new export orders to move lower in the months ahead.”