The Iowa Business Council’s third-quarter survey of executives of the state’s top 21 companies, the three public university presidents and the president of Iowa’s largest banking association shows that fewer of them believe that sales, capital spending and employment will remain steady or improve than in the second quarter.

However, their confidence in all three categories is mostly improved over a year ago.

The business council said its executives remain optimistic about the state’s economy, although they are more reserved. 

“Tighter global markets and end-of-the-year federal tax and budget uncertainty
has influenced what is still a positive outlook being expressed by IBC members,” Stan Askren, the chairman of the business council, said in a press release. 

The survey showed that 61 percent of executives expected sales to be higher or substantially higher in the next six months, while 29 percent expected no change, and 10 percent said they expected lower sales.

A majority (62 percent) expected no change in employment and they were about equally drawn on whether their capital spending would go up or remain the same.

The Iowa Business Council index scores for sales and capital spending were at 67 and 60, respectively.  A score above 50 indicates a positive outlook; below 50 is negative.

Employment sentiment, while still positive at 57, was lower than in previous quarters (at 63 and 61) and mirrored the score in the fourth quarter of 2011.