Seattle Overview

With Seattle’s real estate market and its diverse assortment of businesses now steadying, the Seattle job market and economy are expected to see solid recovery, creating an expanding array of jobs for the region’s nearly 1.9 million highly educated and entrepreneurial workers.

Seattle Job Opportunities

Seattle is home to manufacturing, maritime, life sciences, technology and healthcare companies, as well as a range of startups and established industrial organizations. National companies headquartered in Seattle include Amazon, Starbucks and Nordstrom. Microsoft, Costco and Boeing are based in outlying towns. The Port of Seattle is one of the area’s critical economic drivers, while the University of Washington is a key Seattle employer and launchpad for local innovative companies.

Trade, transportation and utilities is Seattle’s top employment sector, accounting for more than 18 percent of Seattle jobs. The next-largest employment sector, government, has been reporting recent declines, along with the financial-activities sector, construction and other services. Manufacturing; leisure and hospitality; education/health services; and trade, transportation and utilities have each reported strong percentage growth.

Seattle Employment Trends

Employment in Seattle has improved. The unemployment rate, which exceeded 10 percent for only a short time in early 2010, had fallen gradually to the 7-percent range by 2012. Seattle payrolls were positive in 2011 and even stronger in 2012. Online job postings have experienced positive growth over the past year and are nearing prerecession levels.

Moody’s Analytics forecasts jobs in Seattle to increase a solid 2 percent between Q2 2012 and Q2 2013, higher than the 1.3 percent growth expected in the US job supply in that time.