IMPLAN Blog

This year, new international student enrollment fell by more than 21,000 students, and the economic consequences are already evident.

New IMPLAN analysis reveals just how vital international students are to the economic health of communities across the United States. The economic footprint of these students extends far beyond tuition payments, driving billions in GDP, supporting tens of thousands of jobs, and sustaining key local industries.

We’re excited to share that our annual core data release is now live — and this year’s release brings meaningful improvements that help analysts better reflect real local economies, especially in fast-changing or highly specialized regions.

This year, our Data Team used robust data and powerful harmonization tools to deliver a high quality core dataset in record time, navigating changes in federal data availability with precision and ensuring your analyses stay on the cutting edge.

Here’s a quick look at what’s new and why it matters:

New IMPLAN analysis reveals the economic ripple effects of reduced soybean farming due to tariffs, and what a recovery could mean moving forward.

According to the Wall Street Journal, China purchased just over 200 million bushels of U.S. soybeans from January through August of this year. That’s an 80% drop from the nearly 1 billion bushels purchased during the same period last year. For an industry where China previously accounted for more than half of the $24.5 billion in U.S. soybean exports, the change represents an estimated $9.8 billion reduction in output.

But the economic impact doesn’t stop on the farm.

We’re excited to announce a major enhancement to IMPLAN Canada: Users can now model economic impacts at the sub-provincial level!

For the first time, IMPLAN users can explore the economies of Canada’s 76 Economic Regions (ERs), offering a new layer of regional precision and insight. Whether you’re analyzing regional investments, evaluating local industries, or assessing community-level impacts, this added granularity opens the door to deeper, more localized understanding of how economic activity flows across Canada.

Recent IMPLAN analysis reveals that the Department of Energy’s proposed funding cuts to wind and solar projects could significantly dampen U.S. economic growth, threatening more than $500 million in annual GDP and approximately 3,500 jobs across the country.

As the third quarter of the year came to a close, our team noticed a significant trend: a sharp increase in the frequency and detail of security reviews and contract revisions specifically referencing Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies. This is a conversation happening in boardrooms, IT/security teams, and legal departments across the country – and rightly so. The rapid evolution of AI presents both incredible opportunities and substantial risks

Today, we are taking a moment to memorialize IMPLAN’s position and strategy on AI. AI is a topic we approach with both enthusiasm for its potential and a deep-seated commitment to the principles of security, transparency, and tangible value.

When it comes to artificial intelligence, the world’s largest technology companies are not holding back. Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta are set to invest a staggering $364 billion in capital expenditures during their 2025 fiscal years, a dramatic leap from $325 billion in 2024. A recent analysis by IMPLAN’s Vice President of Customer Success, Candi Clouse, Ph.D., shows that this surge in spending will have profound ripple effects across the U.S. economy.

“These findings underscore that Big Tech’s AI investments are more than corporate balance sheet moves — they represent a nationwide economic force,” said Clouse. “When companies build out data centers and AI infrastructure, it sets off a chain reaction that touches everything from construction to manufacturing to local retail. The takeaway is that these investments are reshaping the U.S. economy in ways that matter for communities, workers, and policymakers alike.”

Taxes and tariffs have resurfaced in the last few months and are at the forefront of the nation’s attention. Rumors of trade wars and threats of economic sanctions fly around the globe faster than Garfield can devour a lasagna. Historically, governments have used taxes and tariffs to stimulate or throttle markets to achieve a desired economic state of balance.

The Bureau of Labor Statistic’s (BLS) Monthly Employment Situation Report, also known simply as the monthly jobs report, is one of the most highly-anticipated and closely-watched employment reports due to the timeliness of the data – released mere weeks after the survey data are collected. However, this timeliness entails a trade-off with accuracy, and that trade-off has been costlier in recent years, with both the monthly revisions (as more survey responses flow in) and the annual revisions (the result of benchmarking to other data sources) raising eyebrows lately.  

For example, the 2024 annual benchmark revision estimates from August 2024 implied a larger than typical downward revision of over 800,000 jobs In August 2025, the seasonally adjusted employment estimates for June 2025 were revised downward by 27,000, flipping the estimate of job creation from positive to negative. The most recent benchmark revision estimates from September 2025 implied another larger than typical downward revision of over 900,000 jobs (-0.6 percent).  

In this article, we break down how the estimates in the monthly jobs report are compiled, why the estimates undergo revisions, why those revisions have been so large recently, and whether the BLS data are trustworthy. 

For decades, IMPLAN has empowered organizations to understand the ripple effects of economic activity. Until now, that view has centered on backward linkages: how industries support others through what they purchase. But today, we’re proud to announce a breakthrough that flips the script.

With the release of IMPLAN’s Forward Linkages Insights, you can now follow the story in the other direction, capturing how price changes and industry contributions cascade forward through supply chains, shaping costs, outputs, and opportunities across the broader economy.

This isn’t just another feature update. It’s a new lens for economic impact analysis, unlocking downstream effects in ways never before possible in IMPLAN.