The release of our 2025 Annual Report provides an overview of another active year for the region.
As you’ll read in the letter from the GFMEDC President & CEO and Board Chair, the GFMEDC team kicked off the first year of our four-year Innovate28 campaign having achieved some significant results, including:
- Supporting 17 primary-sector projects that will pump more than $660 million of purchases into our local economy in the next two years alone. A couple of examples of these impacts are the generation of nearly $29 million to the real estate sector, and $12.5 million to area hospitals. And our local taxing bodies will see a boost of more than $8.6 million in local taxes to support our cities, counties, schools and park districts.
- When completed, these projects, and their indirect and induced impacts, are expected to add more than 700 new jobs to the regional economy. You can find more information in our Results section.
- To support filling the thousands of open positions in our region, the GFMEDC has been implementing a strategic workforce recruitment strategy that in 2025 helped us to capture more than 19,000 individuals who have shown an interest in learning more about our region as a place to relocate.
Powerful storytelling tools showcasing career opportunity, community strength, and quality of life to attract and retain top talent.
In 2025, we produced a family-focused brand identity video. That along with the Young Professional video together serves as foundational marketing assets. These anchor pieces are widely used by recruiters and employers to highlight the region’s quality of life, career opportunities, and community strengths, providing consistent, compelling tools to support talent attraction across the region.
Minding Our Own Business(es):A Long-Term Approach to Power a Growing and Vibrant Economy
Through our “Minding Our Own Business(es)” existing industry program, we meet directly with local companies for strategic conversations to identify opportunities, challenges, and industry trends shaping the region’s economy.
This engagement produces actionable insights that guide resources, inform partners, and lead to real results.
This year, the GFMEDC completed 152 strategic company engagements and provided direct assistance to 90 companies, including connecting businesses to financing, workforce pipelines, and visibility that help fuel their growth.
Workforce and economic insights guiding smarter decisions and long-term competitiveness across Greater Fargo–Moorhead.
The 2025 Regional Data & Analytics Summit—hosted by GFMEDC and powered by industry insights from Lightcast, a leading labor market data firm—brought together leaders from government, education, and the private sector to examine trends and align strategies for the future of talent development. The summit reinforced the urgency of addressing workforce shortages and strengthening alignment between education and industry to support long-term, sustainable economic growth.
The summit highlighted critical findings from Lightcast, projecting a national shortfall of 6 million workers by 2032. This daunting figure is compounded by the fact that while the Bureau of Labor Statistics anticipates 6.4 million new workers by 2033, only 2.6 million are expected to be of prime working age. The Fargo Moorhead region is no exception, facing significant shortages in key sectors such as healthcare, bioscience, and manufacturing.
Collaboration across our region drives innovation, talent, and long-term economic growth.
Finally, the GFMEDC’s greatest strength lies in the partnerships and collaborations cultivated across the region. Meaningful relationships and ongoing dialogue create opportunity—often leading to transformative outcomes for businesses, workers, and communities. This spirit of collaboration is deeply rooted in the region’s history and continues to fuel economic growth and shared success.
Equally important is the alignment among partners working toward a common mission. The breadth and diversity of organizations engaged in this work—across the public, private, nonprofit, and academic sectors—allows GFMEDC to operate with impact and agility. We are fortunate to work alongside such a committed network of partners whose collective efforts make it possible to advance the region’s economic priorities every day. For more on that, check out our Partnerships section of our Annual Report.
There’s so much more; for the complete report, click on the button below!
