The Iowa Business Council’s third-quarter Economic Outlook Survey shows a continued positive outlook among its business members for the next six months.  I-B-C executive director, Joe Murphy, says while it is the fifth straight positive survey, a couple of issues continue to persist;a workforce shortage perspective, and increasing bottlenecks in the supply chain for Iowa companies.

Murphy says the labor shortage is directly linked to the supply chain problem.

Sales expectations fell just lightly as did the employment index fell. The survey found 55 percent of businesses expect their workforce to grow, and  40 percent do not anticipate any change in employment.  One hundred percent of the businesses in the survey say hiring is somewhat difficult to very difficult.