WORKFORCE Minnesota’s job growth outpaced the nation over the past year. The state added 44,092 jobs over the year through July, a 1.5 percent gain that ran well ahead of the national 0.2 percent, DEED reported on August 20, with eight of eleven major sectors adding jobs and the private sector up 1.5 percent against 0.5 percent nationally. The unemployment rate ticked down to 4.3 percent, still above the national 4.1 percent. However, the monthly picture cooled. Minnesota shed 1,900 nonfarm jobs after three straight months of growth that beat the nation, and the labor force participation rate slipped to 66.9 percent, though that still ranks among the highest of any state. Commissioner Matt Varilek pointed to growth across a broad range of industries, and DEED flagged the slipping participation and wage growth as trends it is watching.
Source: Minnesota DEED, July 2026 employment release, Aug. 20
POLICY The Small Business Administration wants to redraw the lines that define a small firm. A proposed rule published August 20 would overhaul how the SBA sets its size standards, the revenue and employee thresholds that determine whether a company qualifies as small for federal set-asides, SBA loans, and related assistance. The agency would consolidate 978 industry standards at the six-digit level into 338 at broader four- and five-digit categories and adjust receipts-based thresholds for inflation and productivity for the first time. It proposes no decreases, even in industries its own analysis flags for a lower bar. Comments are due September 21.
Source: Federal Register, SBA proposed rule, Aug. 20 (91 FR 53741)
ENG State regulators are deciding a Cottage Grove battery permit. The Public Utilities Commission has the Cottage Grove Battery Energy Storage System on its August 20 agenda, a site-permit decision on LSP CG Storage’s proposed system of up to 80 megawatts and 320 megawatt-hours in Cottage Grove, Washington County. LSP filed the application on June 10, the Commission found it complete on June 25, and written and oral comments closed July 28. The same agenda carries a procedural step on the Iron Range to Saint Louis County to Arrowhead 345-kilovolt transmission line, whose certificate of need is not expected to reach a final decision until late fall.
Sources: Minnesota PUC, Energy Infrastructure Permitting (Cottage Grove BESS); Minnesota PUC newsletter, August 2026 agenda
POLICY Minnesota is set to revisit the rules for connecting distributed generation to the grid. On the same August 20 agenda, the Commission takes up an update to the generic standards that govern how distributed generation interconnects with and operates on the distribution system under Minn. Stats. §216B.1611 (docket 16-521). Interconnection standards set the technical and procedural terms for tying solar, storage, and other distributed resources to the grid, so a revision reaches into the design work that firms handle on those projects. The Commission is also continuing its investigation into self-commitment and self-scheduling of large baseload generation.
BIZ Architecture billings stayed soft in July. The AIA/Deltek Architecture Billings Index registered 46.6 for July, the American Institute of Architects reported on August 19, extending a downturn that now runs about three and a half years. Any reading below 50 means more firms saw billings fall than rise. New project inquiries kept climbing, but newly signed design contracts slipped again after nearly reaching growth in June, and billings declined across every building sector, with the Northeast the softest.
Source: American Institute of Architects, ABI July 2026, Aug. 19
ACEC Minnesota’s four-session Emerging Leaders program for early-to-mid-career staff runs this October and November. Registration is open, so sign up before spots fill!
The (Almost) Daily Brief publishes most weekdays: policy, funding, workforce, and industry news for Minnesota’s engineering firms, in a few minutes of reading.