Contact:
Dustin Miller
(515) 883-0925
dmiller@cwlgroupiowa.com
DES MOINES, Iowa (January 21, 2026) – The Iowa Chamber Alliance (ICA) released its fourth Iowa Talent Poll on January 21, 2026. This year’s poll, conducted by Cygnal, is the latest iteration focused on talent attraction and includes responses from over 1,200 Iowa residents. ICA created the annual Talent Poll to better understand Iowa’s strengths and weaknesses for labor growth. Iowa needs to retain current Iowans and attract new people willing to move to the state by first understanding what working-age Iowans find attractive about living here.
The Iowa Talent Poll is specifically designed to be iterative to understand potential trends and assist policymakers and community stakeholders in making decisions. Each year, the results have shown that Iowa has a competitive advantage with the top concerns for post-millennials who are a key demographic for our future labor force. Poll respondents say they put Iowa ahead of other places for its small-town feel, lower cost of living (59%), friendliness (62%), and safety (68.5%).
While the poll continues to affirm a strong base for talent attraction, concerns about respondents’ ability to achieve their career and financial goals have persisted since 2021. Poll respondents believe that stopping inflation and rising cost of living should be the number priority for the state along with creating jobs and impacting property taxes. While 73.1% of respondents feel secure in their current jobs, the growth of the belief in a lower standard of living for their future has reached almost half of respondents (47.1%).
The poll results continue to show the value of chambers of commerce as a trusted source of information, with poll respondents overwhelmingly seeing small businesses and businesses in their communities as their most trusted institutions and believing that small businesses make the largest investment in Iowa’s workforce.
ICA’s board president John Hall stated “this year’s Iowa Talent Poll continues to show a strong base for Iowa to market to working adults especially for young families and we hope policymakers continue to make investments to further grow the state as our chambers also work with our communities on that same goal.”
Why Iowa?
To download full image, right-click and choose “save image as”
More information on the poll can be found at http://www.iowachamberalliance.com/.
-30-
About the Iowa Chamber Alliance
The Iowa Chamber Alliance (ICA) is a non-partisan coalition that advocates for economic growth policies and initiatives by representing leading Chambers of Commerce and economic development organizations across Iowa. The mission of the Iowa Chamber Alliance is to drive a policy agenda that grows the state on behalf of our more than 17,000 members that range from small businesses to Fortune 100 companies.
Iowa Chamber Alliance Members
- Ames Regional Economic Alliance
- Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance
- Council Bluffs Area Chamber of Commerce
- Dubuque Area Chamber of Commerce
- Greater Des Moines Partnership
- Greater Fort Dodge Growth Alliance
- Greater Muscatine Chamber of Commerce & Industry
- Greater Burlington Partnership
- Grow Clinton
- Grow Cedar Valley
- Greater Iowa City, Inc
- Marshalltown Area Chamber of Commerce
- Greater Mason City Chamber of Commerce
- North Iowa Corridor Economic Development Corporation
- Quad Cities Chamber
- Siouxland Chamber of Commerce