The Economic Perspective 9/25/2025

The Latest Trending Economic, Environmental and Infrastructure News Curated for You by The Balmoral Group

The Balmoral Group provides practical, professional and precise Economics, Data Analytics, and Engineering Consulting services and is part of a globally integrated team.

Happy Friday! 

Welcome Back! In another important milestone for The Balmoral Group, this week the firm moves into new office space at 200 West Welbourne Avenue, Winter Park FL 32789. Our new space is about double the area of our existing office and accommodates our growing teams. For those accustomed to combining a visit to our office with patronizing one of Winter Park’s excellent dining or cultural offerings, fear not as we moved two blocks from Lincoln Avenue. We look forward to welcoming guests to our new digs soon! As a result of our move, our servers will be shut down tomorrow resulting in us losing access to email and other communication. Our servers should be backup on Monday.

This week's articles highlight news for construction employment, climate related issues and more!

In our first article we discuss nationwide construction job trends. While some states have seen year-over-year increases in employment, other states have seen declines in employment. Our second article covers warming temperatures in river systems across the US, while our fourth article covers melting glaciers in Alaska. Our third article highlights potential antitrust issues with investment deals made between Nvidia and OpenAI. Additionally, we have articles on robotic beehives, and the DOD delaying forever chemical cleanup. Our data visualization covers North Sea oil drilling. 

This week also kicks off Fat Bear Week! Brown Bears in Alaska have begun eating in preparation for hibernation as they consume large amounts of Salmon to put on the pounds. You can watch live footage of Brown Bears in Katmai National Park here and vote on your favorite fat bear here. 

Please feel free to forward this to anyone you think would be interested. If you’d like to view previous editions please click here, or to subscribe please click here!

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

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Construction Jobs Increase in 28 States and D.C. Between August 2024 and August 2025, Washington State and Others Fall Behind 

Construction employment increased in 28 states year-over-year in August 2025. 19 states added construction jobs between July and August. However, Washington State is falling behind with a 5% decrease in construction labor force, or 11,200 less jobs compared to this same time last year. California is also down 13,800 construction jobs, or 1.5% of its labor force compared to this same time last hear. Current economic conditions, uncertainty driven by tariffs, immigration, federal funding, taxes and other policy shifts may be driving construction job losses in California and Washington. Read more here and here.

U.S. Rivers are Experiencing Unprecedented and Unexpectedly Intense Warming

A new analysis of nearly 1,500 river locations over more than 40 years found that the frequency, duration, and intensity of heat waves is increasing in waterways across the country. This is posing a threat to fish and other aquatic populations that are adapted to cooler temperatures. River heat waves are currently increasing faster than the air heat waves, largely caused by human activity, both in climate change, and direct effects on river systems, such as dams. Salmon and Trout are examples of fish populations that are likely to struggle. Documenting fish kills will be an important metric to help determine to what level this issue is affecting the environment. Read more here and here.

Inside the Panama Canal's Mega-Project Plan to Engineer its Way Through Severe Droughts of the Future 

A historic drought that recently paralyzed shipping through the Panama Canal has led the Panama Canal Authority to invest heavily in infrastructure to mitigate drought impact. The Panama Canal depends heavily on fresh water and rainfall for its operations as it uses over twice the amount of water New York City does for the canal alone. When operating at full strength the canal can move 50 vessels through it per day, but in recent years the weather has caused restrictions on the weight and amount of shipping that can pass through. Last fiscal year the Canal Authority reported a 29% decrease in shipping, with the biggest hits in liquefied natural gas and dry bulk transits. The US economy is heavily dependent on the Panama Canal as 73% of Canal traffic is coming from U.S. exports. Read more here.

Melting Glacier Creates a New Island in Alaska

In Southeastern Alaska, a melting glacier has revealed a new island. Prow Knob previously has been connected to the rest of the surrounding landmass as the water around it was frozen by the Alsek Glacier. As this glacier has receded, Prow Knob is now stranded as a singular landmass. This is a hallmark of climate change and warming temperatures as events like this are becoming more common. As glaciers recede, the landscape will continue to alter. Alsek Lake has also enlarged due to the glacier melt, nearly doubling in size. As ice detaches from Prow Knob it's expected to become less stable and continue melting. Read more here and here.

How Robotic Beehives Use AI to Protect Bees from Climate Change

The startup Beewise has developed a new AI driven robotic beehive, named BeeHome, that creates a new option for beekeepers compared to the previous wooden beehives that lack in protection and nurturing qualities. In the robotic beehive there are cameras that monitor the bees and connect with AI software to identify the needs of each bee. Food supplies, temperature, medicine, etc. all all variables monitored and addressed by the robotic hive. The BeeHome costs about the same as the wooden hives, and can manage up to 10 hives each. Beewise hopes to scale this up even further and get 40 hives managed by a single BeeHome. Read more here and here.

US DOD Quietly Delays Forever Chemical Cleanup at Military Bases in WA and OR

Earlier this week, the New York Times reported on delays of military site cleanup efforts by the U.S. Department of Defense, relating to the groundwater contamination of these sites by PFAS (Perfluoroalkyl/ Polyfluoroalkyl Substances) from firefighting foam – substances which are shown to increase risk of certain cancers and birth defects, among other negative health outcomes. The Oregon Capital Chronicle, a news source local to Oregon and the Pacific Northwest, reports that included among these 600 sites are the Air National Guard base in Portland, OR and the Fairchild Air Force base in Spokane, WA. The Capital Chronicle, analyzing a previously released list, also reports that cleanup efforts on these sites are being delayed for a full five years from their initial completion timelines, now to be completed in 2031 and 2032 for the Portland and Spokane sites respectively. Read The Oregon Capital Chronicle’s article here and read the New York Times’ article here

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Data Visualization of the Week

Geology Could Crush Hopes of Extracting all North Sea's Oil and Gas 

North Sea oil interests have risen in recent months despite public pushback and years of decline. North Sea oil production peaked in 1999 and has since more than halved. While current the current UK administration has made commitments to expand drilling even if exploration licenses are distributed, geology remains a large concern. Small increases in production can be achieved, but large expenses caused by geology concerns will likely keep foreign options for oil more competitive. Only 1 in 4 exploration wells lead to commercial success currently. While an estimated 3.5 billion barrels of oil are expected to be in the North Sea. Below we can see how the number of exploration wells have declined overlayed with how many become new drilling fields. Read more here.