Iowa employers appear to be  wary of the economy following the November elections.

The Hamilton Group’s most recent Iowa hiring survey - taken just days after the election - shows that optimism for 2013 hiring fell significantly.  Results, taken from a survey of more than 5,000 small businesses in Iowa, showed that only 24 percent of respondents were optimistic, down 30 percentage points from the third quarter of 2012. Some 52 percent of respondents said they were pessimistic.

Only 25 percent of businesses said they expected to increase their total employment in the next six months, down from 44 percent in the third-quarter survey.
- Kyle Oppenhuizen