Missouri Economy 2026: Boeing Jets, Soybeans, and Edward Jones
Boeing St. Louis (F-15, F/A-18) · #1 Midwest ag exporter · Edward Jones HQ · BJC & SSM healthcare · Kansas City financial corridor
Missouri Economy at a Glance
Missouri’s Key Economic Sectors
Economic Drivers & Political Stakes
Fighter Jets, Defense Contracts, and the Legacy of McDonnell Douglas
The Boeing facility in Hazelwood, Missouri — outside St. Louis — is one of the most storied aerospace manufacturing sites in the world. As McDonnell Douglas, it produced the F-4 Phantom, the F-15 Eagle, and the F/A-18 Hornet. After Boeing acquired McDonnell Douglas in 1997, the St. Louis plant continued producing the F-15 (for US and export customers) and the F/A-18 Super Hornet (for the US Navy). More recently, the T-7A Red Hawk trainer, developed jointly with Saab, entered production at St. Louis. The facility employs approximately 16,000 workers directly and generates enormous economic multiplier effects through the supplier ecosystem in the greater St. Louis area.
Unlike Boeing's commercial aircraft operations — which have faced severe quality and safety scrutiny since the 737 MAX crisis — the St. Louis defense operations are funded by long-term US military contracts. While defense budgets can fluctuate, the F-15 continues to attract foreign military sales (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Singapore), providing production diversity. Missouri's senators are reliable votes for defense authorization bills that maintain these programs.
Soybeans, China, and the Farmer Paradox
Missouri is a major soybean producer, typically ranking among the top five or six states nationally. Soybeans are Missouri agriculture's most export-dependent crop — a substantial share of US soybean production historically flows to China. When US-China trade tensions escalate into tariff wars, Chinese agricultural buyers reduce their US soybean purchases and source from Brazil instead. This pattern played out during the 2018-2019 trade war and is repeating in the 2025 tariff cycle. Missouri farmers face direct income losses from reduced commodity prices.
Missouri cattle farmers are somewhat insulated from this dynamic since beef cattle operations are more domestically oriented. But the overall agricultural economy faces trade war headwinds from multiple directions simultaneously. Missouri farmers vote overwhelmingly Republican and continue supporting politicians whose policies harm their export markets — a political loyalty pattern driven by cultural and social alignment that overrides narrow economic self-interest. Federal trade war compensation payments (Market Facilitation Payments) partially offset losses but cannot substitute for long-term market relationships.
Edward Jones, BJC, and Missouri's White-Collar Economy
Edward Jones is headquartered in the Des Peres suburb of St. Louis and is one of the most recognizable names in retail investment advisory services. The firm's model — approximately 19,000 financial advisors operating in individual branch offices, often in smaller communities — makes it a distinctive presence in American financial services. Its headquarters employs thousands in St. Louis, and its advisor network extends Missouri's financial services influence nationally. The Kansas City metro adds banking, insurance, and asset management jobs that round out Missouri's financial services concentration.
Healthcare is Missouri's other major white-collar employer. BJC HealthCare is one of the nation's largest nonprofit healthcare systems, with hospitals anchored by Barnes-Jewish Hospital — Washington University's affiliated teaching hospital and a nationally ranked academic medical center. SSM Health is another major Catholic health system with significant St. Louis operations. Together, these healthcare systems employ tens of thousands in the St. Louis metro and create a large professional class whose economic interests differ from rural Missouri's agricultural base. Missouri's 2020 Medicaid expansion (passed by ballot initiative despite legislative resistance) extended healthcare polling to hundreds of thousands of low-income residents, affecting hospital finances and employment.
