The Midwest economy continues to see growth as 2017 gets underway. Businesses are also seeing expanding confidence and new manufacturing jobs.
The Rural Main Street Index is a monthly survey sent out from Creighton University in Omaha to business leaders across nine Midwestern states. The index reached above growth neutral for the third straight month. It ended January at 54.7. This is the highest the score the index has reached since February 2015. Surveyors also recorded the highest level of economic confidence in over six years.
South Dakota is seeing notable growth in manufacturing jobs, that is reflected across the region.
Ernie Goss is the economics chair at Creighton University. He says the economy is looking better, but there’s no cause for celebration yet.
“The confidence index hit its highest level in six years and of course that’s what we’re seeing at the national level and I’m a little concerned about that. Since the elections I think the sentiments gotten a little ahead of the actual conditions in other words things are getting better, but not like what we’re seeing in the stock market, that would be the Dow. Again what we’re seeing our inflation gauge is up significantly. So there are some, I don’t want to call them warning signals, but still even with the much better numbers in January, the economy still has a ways to go,” says Goss.
Goss says he is keeping an eye on the Federal Reserve and is expecting interest rate hikes in the next few months. He also says it’s unknown how the economy will react to changing trade agreements with foreign countries.