AMES, Iowa -- Iowa's economic recovery since the Great Recession is lagging behind the rest of the nation.
"We rank, this decade alone, sixth worst in growth. Among our neighbors we rank worst. Among all of the plains states we're growing at a slower pace" says Iowa State University Economist Dave Swenson.
He also says there was a big divide in where Iowa actually did grow from 2007 and 2018.
"We have strong growth in our metropolitan areas in health and social services--that sector grew by 30,000 jobs in the metropolitan economy. The rural economy lost 12,000 of those jobs." Swenson says
He says job growth in metropolitan counties expanded by more than nine percent, while the job rate in rural counties fell by two percent.
Swenson also says there was a significant difference in the recovery of manufacturing jobs. Urban counties added just over 100 jobs, but rural counties lost more than 5,600.