An October 8 St. Louis Fed analysis examines registered apprenticeship growth in states that overlap the Fed's Eighth District. The author uses annual Registered Apprenticeship Partners Information Database System data to compare 2009-19 and 2021-25 economic-expansion periods. These are historical active-apprentice counts, not a count of jobs open today. National active apprenticeships grew 21% from 2009 to 2019 and 26% from 2021 to 2025 in the analysis. In the later period, all but one Eighth District state, Indiana, outpaced the national growth rate. Growth rates do not show the same headcount: states began with different numbers of apprentices. Construction and extraction occupations had consistent growth across both periods and accounted for 53% of apprentices in the Eighth District states in 2025. Healthcare also grew, particularly in the earlier period. A state's total and an occupation's share do not establish that an individual applicant can get a place. The pattern was not uniform across occupations. The author reports that computer and math apprenticeships in the measured states fell almost 60% between 2021 and 2025, despite longer-term national employment projections for those occupations. A projection and a recent apprenticeship count measure different things. Completion is another limit. The article reports a 46% national registered-apprenticeship completion rate in 2024, with Eighth District state rates ranging from 33% in Mississippi to 58% in Illinois. It discusses childcare, instruction quality, program length and workplace culture as possible factors, rather than claiming one proven cause for every dropout. Limits: the district covers all Arkansas, most Missouri and parts of five other states, but the analysis uses state-level counts. Its annual periods do not exactly match the monthly dates of recessions and expansions. It is research commentary, not a new grant, guaranteed job, wage offer or open apprenticeship application; workers should check actual program requirements and availability separately.