Iowa manufacturers say they are “constrained” by the available workforce in Iowa — and it’s limiting their ability to grow. The current chairwoman of the Iowa Association of Business and Industry’s board of directors says manufacturing is the largest sector in Iowa’s economy — ahead of even agriculture.
That’s Lori Schaefer-Weaton, the president of Agri-Industrial Plastics Company in Fairfield.
Manufacturers have difficulty finding qualified Iowans to fill those jobs, however, and Schaefer-Weaton says that is “what keeps her up at night.”
State officials have developed what they call an “online tool kit” of resources for Iowa manufacturers. According to the governor’s office, Iowa has more 61-hundred manufacturers that employ more than 200-thousand Iowans. Manufacturing has a 29-billion-dollar annual impact on Iowa’s economy. That makes Iowa one of the top 10 manufacturing states.
