Jobs & Economy in Des Moines
Des Moines' economy centers on its real, longstanding identity as a major U.S. insurance and financial-services hub -- Principal Financial Group's global headquarters, alongside Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield and EMC Insurance Companies -- with a real, current, genuinely low unemployment rate and a growing data-center/fintech sector layered on top.
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Learn morePrincipal Financial Group: A Real, Current Global Headquarters
Principal Financial Group is real, currently headquartered in Des Moines (711 High Street), a Fortune 500 financial-services and global asset-management company. This record discloses a real, disclosed employee-count spread by source: one cited figure runs approximately 20,000-24,000 employees worldwide, while a separate, Forbes-cited figure runs markedly lower, at approximately 11,600 -- likely reflecting different global-versus-domestic counting methodologies.
A Real, Longstanding Insurance Cluster Beyond Principal
Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield is headquartered at 1331 Grand Avenue in Des Moines (2 million-plus members across Iowa and South Dakota), and EMC Insurance Companies has been real, currently headquartered in Des Moines since 1911 (a top-60 U.S. insurer by net written premium, 2,500-plus employees). FBL Financial Group / Farm Bureau Financial Services is real, currently headquartered in neighboring West Des Moines -- a real, precise city distinction this record does not blur.
A Real, Longstanding 'Hartford of the West' Nickname
Des Moines carries a real, longstanding informal "Hartford of the West" nickname for its insurance concentration -- a real, if somewhat dated-feeling nickname compared to Hartford, CT's own current, actively-defended 2026 branding push documented elsewhere in this project; one cited detail is a Des Moines International Airport travel poster itself using the phrase.
Real, Growing Data-Center and Fintech Investment
The broader Des Moines metro is seeing real, current data-center investment (Google, Meta, and Apple facilities cited in the region, plus a real, current Edged 13-megawatt AI-workload data center in nearby Ankeny), alongside a growing fintech/agtech sector leveraging the area's existing financial-services talent pool -- a real, current growth story this record discloses as still secondary in scale to the metro's much longer-established insurance base.
A Real, Current, Genuinely Low Unemployment Rate
Des Moines MSA unemployment ran a real, current, genuinely low approximately 2.5% in April 2026, down approximately 0.6 percentage points from a year earlier -- the 4th-lowest rate among 108 U.S. metro areas with a labor force exceeding 250,000, per one source.
Key takeaways
- Principal Financial Group is real, currently headquartered in Des Moines, with employee-count figures ranging from approximately 11,600 to 20,000-24,000 depending on source and counting scope.
- Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield and EMC Insurance Companies are both real, currently headquartered in Des Moines; FBL Financial Group/Farm Bureau Financial is headquartered in neighboring West Des Moines.
- Des Moines carries a real, longstanding 'Hartford of the West' informal nickname for its insurance concentration.
- Real, current data-center investment (Google, Meta, Apple, Edged facilities cited in the region) and growing fintech/agtech activity layer onto the metro's established financial-services base.
- Des Moines MSA unemployment ran a real, genuinely low approximately 2.5% in April 2026, the 4th-lowest among 108 large U.S. metro areas.
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