Joe Murphy, CEO of the Iowa Business Council, serves Iowa’s largest employers. The IBC represents $10 Billion of Iowa’s $240 Billion in revenues and Murphy discusses where Iowa ranks competitively.
The Competitiveness Dashboard is an amazing tool used to inform policy makers to help the state become even more competitive—so many valuable tidbits. Not only does he provide you with a snapshot of our Iowa’s performance through these comparisons, but you can see how other states are shining and learn from their efforts. The IBC uses the report each year to develop actionable items to make Iowa better.
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Iowa’s success is healthy largely because of its diversity. Iowa ranks number 4 in manufacturing outputs and median household income over $70,000 grew more than 6% in the last year. Our greatest challenge, no surprise to anyone, is a lack of people. How do we recruit more people?
IBC is working with its members to crack that nut. To overcome that challenge, one thing we have continually outperformed other states is educating our workforce. Programs like Future Ready Iowa and others are helping equip our students in work-based learning. Through their efforts, the employers are partnering more closely with students, going from 120 to 350 school-based programs. This is huge progress.
Murphy also gives us a look at their economic outlook results for Q1 to give you a feel for how these important companies are performing through April. A fascinating episode that offers all kinds of hope and pride in this amazing state. For more information, contact Joe Murphy at jmurphy@ioiwabusinesscouncil.org or call 515-246-1700.