(Spencer)-The Iowa Lakes Corridor Development Corporation is out with the findings of its 2023 Business Retention and Expansion Report.
It contains information from interviews Corridor Officials conducted with business and industry leaders in Buena Vista, Clay, Dickinson and Emmet Counties.
Corridor Business Retention and Workforce Partnership Coordinator JoAnne Follon says 46 percent of the companies surveyed are planning to expand their operations in the next three to five years, creating more than $524 million in capital investment and over 350 new jobs.
She says the report also identified ongoing issues facing businesses and industries in the region.
“Eighty two percent of our businesses are experiencing recruitment issues. That’s concerning and needs to be front and center for us, which I think, in respect to that, companies are very interested in new equipment, more efficient equipment, robotics, robots. All that type of thing is very important in their business.”
She adds that 74 businesses and industries were interviewed across the four-county area.
“The majority of the businesses that we interviewed are probably in that 100 and less employee base. We have some very large employers such as Tyson as we well know but, the majority of the businesses that we interviewed were smaller, under a hundred.”
Follon says they plan to expand the number of interviews to 100 for the 2024 report.
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