JOHNSTON — Against the background of a dismal federal jobs report, two Iowa business group leaders on Friday said the state’s employers remain optimistic about the economy here, although they also warned against the impact of ongoing uncertainty in federal trade policy.

Nicole Crain, president of the Iowa Association of Business and Industry, and Joe Murphy, president of the Iowa Business Council, discussed the state of the Iowa economy and Iowa businesses Friday for this weekend’s episode of “Iowa Press” on Iowa PBS.

The U.S. Labor Department on Friday reported that U.S. employers added only 22,000 jobs in August — down from 79,000 in July and a fraction of the 80,000 that economists had projected, according to the Associated Press.

And the June federal report’s numbers were adjusted d

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