Trendsights Newsletter

Back-to-School Fun Facts
The back-to-school season is among the most significant shopping events for consumers and retailers, second only to the winter holidays, according to the National Retail Federation. Nationally, consumers plan to spend $39.4 billion on back-to-school shopping and $88.8 billion on college purchases in 2025. From August 1-3, 2025, Missouri hosts a sales tax holiday to help families with certain back-to-school purchases.
Missouri Businesses By Size
Missouri was home to more than 230,000 private sector establishments in 2024. Small businesses employed a significant portion of the private sector workforce in the state. Just over 46 percent of the state’s workforce was employed at businesses with fewer than 50 employees. Medium-sized businesses (50-249 employees) employed 28.4 percent of the private sector workforce, while large employers (250 or more) employed 25.4 percent. Click on the link above to learn more about Missouri businesses.
June Job Ad Comparison
Job postings increased 23 percent from June 2024 to June 2025. In June 2025, there were 71,960 online job postings compared to 58,740 in June 2024. Most industries increased from last year, apart from Educational Services, which decreased 11 percent. Accommodation and Food Services had the largest increase at 44 percent.
Missouri is a Hub for Ice Cream Manufacturing
July is National Ice Cream Month and data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows Missouri has the 5th highest concentration of ice cream and frozen dessert manufacturing employment, behind only Utah, Connecticut, Maryland, and Oregon. With a location quotient of 1.86, employment in this industry is nearly twice as concentrated in Missouri compared to the rest of the nation.
Jefferson City Ranks in Top 10 of Small Metros
Recognizing their critical role, the Best-Performing Cities (BPC) index evaluates the relative economic performance of 403 metropolitan areas, providing valuable insights into the strengths and vulnerabilities of these economic metros. Of the 203 small metros evaluated, Jefferson City, Missouri ranked 6th in the nation, followed by Cape Girardeau (55), Columbia (75), Joplin (87), and St. Joseph (138). In the ranking of the 200 large metros, Springfield ranked 67th, followed by St. Louis (81) and Kansas City (92).
Southeast Region Commuting Profile
The Southeast Workforce Development Area (WDA) consists of 13 counties and is home to Dexter, Perryville, Jackson, Sikeston, and Cape Girardeau, which is the largest city in the region. In 2022, the Southeast WDA employed 4.5 percent of Missouri’s workforce. Of the 101,630 workers employed in the region in 2022, 76.4 percent commuted to work from within the region. The remainder (23.6%) commuted into Southeast WDA from homes outside of the region. Click on the link above to learn more about the Southeast Region’s workforce commuting habits.
2025 Kids Count Data Book
The Annie E. Casey Foundation's KIDS COUNT® is a premier source of data on children, youth and families. Recently updated for 2025, the report and interactive data tool provides indicators for the nation, states, county and cities for factors such as demographics, education, economic well-being, family and community, health, and safety. Click on the link above to explore the latest data for Missouri’s youth.
County Average Wages
St. Louis City had the highest average annual wage across all private industries in 2024 at $79,605, nearly $15,000 more than the state average of $64,754. County average wage figures are derived from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), a cooperative program between the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development. Click on the link above to view county average wages for both privately-owned industries and for all industries combined.
Celebrating July 4th
The Fourth of July is projected to generate more than $8.9 billion in food spending in the U.S. as 86 percent of Americans plan to celebrate the holiday. In Missouri, the state’s 17 snack food manufacturers may help supply the 61 percent who are planning a cookout or BBQ to celebrate. Click on the link above to learn more fun facts about the upcoming holiday.
Missouri's GDP, 1st Quarter 2025
Gross domestic product (GDP) is the broadest measure of an area’s economic activity. In the first quarter of 2025, real GDP for the nation decreased at an annual rate of 0.5 percent. GDP decreased in 39 states, with the percent change ranging from 1.7 percent at an annual rate in South Carolina to -6.1 percent in Iowa and Nebraska. Missouri’s GDP decreased by 1.8 percent in the quarter.
Occupational Handbook: Heavy and Tractor-trailer Truck Drivers
Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers transport goods from one location to another. Working as a long-haul truck driver typically requires a high school diploma and attending a professional truck driving school. Pursuing work as a long-haul truck driver is a lifestyle choice because these drivers can be away from home for days or weeks at a time. Nationally, the median annual pay for this occupation was $57,440 in 2024. In Missouri, heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers are projected to have more than 5,000 openings annually with a median wage of $50,540.
Ozark Region Career Outlook
Career Grades are a tool to help make comparisons between occupations. Each occupation is assigned a letter grade from A+ to F based on its outlook over the next decade. The Ozark region is projected to have over 33,400 annual job openings through 2032. Some of the occupations in the region with an A or B career grade include customer service representatives, heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers, nursing assistants, general and operations managers, and accountants and auditors.
Latest Federal Beige Books for Kansas City and St. Louis
The Beige Book is a Federal Reserve System publication about current economic conditions across the 12 Federal Reserve Districts. It characterizes regional economic conditions and prospects based on a variety of mostly qualitative information, gathered directly from each district's sources. Reports across the 12 Federal Reserve Districts indicate that economic activity has declined slightly since the previous report. Half of the districts reported slight to moderate declines in activity, three districts reported no change, and three districts reported slight growth. Missouri is the only state to be home to two federal reserve banks, and the reports from the Kansas City and St. Louis districts provide an overview of current economic conditions in the central U.S.
May Online Job Postings
There were 59,040 new job postings in Missouri in May 2025, according to data from Lightcast™. This was lower than the 63,560 postings in April 2025. The Heath Care and Social Assistance industry had the most postings statewide and in six of the nine regions. The St. Louis Region had 3,820 Health Care and Social Assistance job postings in May 2025, followed by the Kansas City (2,150), Central (1,050), Ozark (640), and North (560) regions. Click on the link above to view more about job postings trends for Missouri and its regions.
Cost of Living First Quarter 2025
Missouri had the fourth lowest cost of living in the United States for the first quarter in 2025. In general, the most expensive areas to live were Hawaii, Alaska, the Northeast, and the West Coast. The least expensive areas were Midwest and Southern states. MERIC derives the cost of living index for each state by averaging the indices of participating cities and metropolitan areas in that state. Missouri’s cost of living index for first quarter 2025 was 88.0.
Father's Day Fun Facts
Father's Day is a day to honor the men and father figures who have made a difference in our lives. Three of every four people plan to celebrate Father's Day this year. Shop in one of the over 350 hardware stores in Missouri to find the perfect gift! Click on the link above to see other fun facts about this holiday.
Missouri Business Index Rises
Missouri’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for May 2025 was 53.4, increasing 5.3 points from the April level of 48.1. The monthly Mid-America Business Conditions Survey conducted by Creighton University is considered a key economic indicator. It measures such factors as new orders, production, supplier delivery times, backlogs, inventories, prices, employment, import orders and exports. Typically, a score greater than 50 indicates an expansionary economy while a score below 50 forecasts a sluggish economy.
Women in the Workforce
There were more than 1.43 million women in Missouri’s workforce (in both private- and public-owned establishments) in 2023, making up 50.6 percent of total Missouri employment. The percentage of women in the workforce has remained steady over the last 10 years. Women’s share of employment varies by occupation. Across the state, Healthcare Support occupations have the largest female representation at 84 percent. Click on the link above to learn more.
Commuting Profile: South Central
The South Central Workforce Development Area (WDA) consists of 12 counties: Butler, Carter, Douglas, Howell, Oregon, Ozark, Reynolds, Ripley, Shannon, Texas, Wayne, and Wright. Poplar Bluff and West Plains are among the largest cities in the region. There were 52,363 employees that lived in the South Central WDA and 43,749 workers employed in the region, resulting in a net outflow of 8,614 workers traveling to jobs outside of the region. Click on the link above to learn more about the South Central and the workforce commuting habits.
Top Openings for STEM Occupations
Missouri’s Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) occupations are projected to have 14,100 annual openings each year between 2022 and 2032. STEM occupations generally pay above average wages in Missouri, and most require a bachelor’s degree or higher. Eighteen of the top 20 STEM occupations have Career Grades that are B and higher, meaning these occupations have above average growth, total openings, or wages.
2024 Occupational Data Released
What is the average wage for a nursing assistant in the St. Louis area? How many welders are employed in southwest Missouri? These are the kinds of questions that Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) data can answer. OEWS data provides employment and wage estimates for over 800 occupations in Missouri, and in the state's 15 geographical regions. This data is produced in partnership with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics by conducting a survey of employers across Missouri. Click the link above to explore the 2024 data or download the complete Excel file for your own analysis.
LMI Quick Reference Guide
The Labor Market Information (LMI) Quick Reference Guide provides descriptions and uses for many of the most common labor market information data sets. With links to data about employment, wages, labor force trends, demographics, and career planning products, the quick reference guide is a good place to start for anyone wanting to learn more about these valuable resources.
Middle Skill Occupations
Middle-skill occupations are an essential part of Missouri’s workforce, accounting for 4 out of every 10 jobs. These critical occupations are broadly defined as occupations that require some training after high school but less than a bachelor’s degree. Middle-skill jobs often offer good pay or career pathways with industry-recognized training and credentials that can be as short as a few months. The Manufacturing industry had the highest total number of middle-skill employees, followed by the Health Care and Social Assistance sector.
Skills Demand: Computer and Mathematical Occupations
Employers request a variety of skills from job applicants. Some skills are termed as durable, or soft skills, such as communication, creativity, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, or customer service. Other skills are considered technical or hard skills, such as sales, project management, computer science, or programming languages. This brief explores skills requested by employers in their job postings for Computer and Mathematical occupations, and how the demand for these skills has changed over the last five years. Learning about in-demand skills help the potential workforce prepare for skills of today and may identify emerging trends for the future.