(Radio Iowa) – Businesses have had to do some adjusting with increased costs and the continued tight labor market. The C-E-O of the Ankeny-based Casey’s convenience stores, Darren Rebellez, says they decided to focus on employee turnover. “What we’ve done is we’ve found some ways through a number of different tactics of just making the job of running our stores a little simpler,” he says, “and at the same time focus on some things that employees were telling us that they want to see.” Rebellez said during his recent quarterly report, that focus has led to the highest employee engagement scores they’ve ever had as a company.

“so what that’s done is it’s reduced our turnover. And so we’ve seen sequential improvement in turnover every single month this year. And as a result of that, our overtime hours are down and our training hours are down,” Rebellez said. So our overtime in the second quarter was down about 22 percent. And our training hours are down 25 percent.” He said that allowed then to avoid cutting back store hours due to a lack of staff.

“We were able to maintain the hours of operating the store and just operating it more effectively. And at the same time pull out what I call those non-productive hours that we were spending on on overtime and on incremental training because we were turning over people so much,” he said. Rebellez made his comments during the recent investor update.

(Radio Iowa) – December is traditionally a very busy, profitable month for retailers, but the latest economic survey for Iowa and eight other Midwestern states shows another dip in the business barometer for the final month of 2022. Creighton University economist Ernie Goss says the state and regional economies fell further below growth neutral, or 50 on the zero-to-100 scale, during December, pointing to higher recession risk for 2023.

“These are the lowest readings we’ve recorded since the pandemic, in other words, that’s May of 2020,” Goss says. “So, things are not looking good. The economy is very likely to slow down significantly in the first half of 2023 and certainly the second half of 2023, so it was not a good signal.” Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota are all seeing employment levels now that exceed pre-pandemic levels, but the survey shows Iowa has yet to hit that mark. Goss says the region is still lagging several thousand jobs, but hiring numbers did rise during December.

“Companies are still hiring. Job additions, employment additions are not, I won’t call it strong but it’s surprising the strength we’re seeing there when everything else is not good,” Goss says. “But when we asked about applicants for job openings in the company, 63% reported a shortage of applicants for any job openings they had.” The future outlook is far from glowing, Goss says, as the overall Business Conditions Index has fallen for seven of the past nine months. Plus, he says about 60-percent of supply managers surveyed expect the economy to slump into a recession in 2023.

“We’re talking about really the higher, higher probability of a recession,” Goss says. “I think the probability of a recession is now well above 50%. We’re going to see slow-to-no-to-negative growth. The housing sector’s already in a recession, manufacturing is likely to enter a minor recession.” According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Iowa’s current labor force participation rate is two percentage points lower than before the pandemic. Goss says that indicates more than 34-thousand Iowans remain out of the workforce, thus contributing to the state’s labor shortage.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Susan Christensen has been elected to another term. Christensen’s two-year term as the leader of the court expired December 31st and she was elected to a new term by fellow justices that began on January 1st. Christensen was first selected chief justice in 2020 to succeeded Chief Justice Mark Cady who died suddenly in 2019.

The Harlan native has served on the high court for five years after being appointed by Governor Kim Reynolds. Christensen released a statement saying she is “honored to be selected by my colleagues to continue to serve as Chief Justice of Iowa’s court system.”

IASUPCO Justice Susan Christensen (File photo)

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak, Tuesday night, arrested a man following a traffic stop. Authorities say 26-year-old Bryson Lee Powell, of Red Oak, was arrested for Driving While Suspended in the State of Iowa. He was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on bond amounting to $491.25.

(Radio Iowa/KJAN) -One person died during an explosion in a residential area of Council Bluffs, late Tuesday morning.  Council Bluffs Police say a man was found dead after a detached garage exploded at around 11:54-a.m. in the area of 35th Street and Avenue G.  Reports say neighbors two and three blocks away felt the explosion and one witness told said he saw the victim had been thrown into the street. Crews from the Council Bluffs Fire Department and Black Hills Energy, which supplies natural gas in Council Bluffs, responded to the explosion, but authorities say it appears the man who died was working in the garage and the explosion was an accident.

A preliminary investigation concluded that a compressed natural gas cylinder exploded in the garage at 709 N 35th Street, and that the explosion was NOT the result of a gas leak from the utilities serving the property. The incident remains under investigation.

The victim’s name was not immediately released.