A cloud hanging over Seattle is usually a good thing, if you’re here for the rain, or if you work in that aspect of the tech industry. But the cloud of economic uncertainty is a less welcome occurrence.
The tech boom is showing more signs of tech gloom this week following layoffs at some of the region’s biggest employers.
- Amazon is laying off another 16,000 corporate employees, bringing the total to 30,000 since October. The company is also shuttering all of its Fresh and Go grocery stores.
- Meta is cutting hundreds of workers in its Reality Labs division, with roots in the region.
- Expedia Group is slashing more than 160 jobs at its Seattle HQ.
Is Seattle facing a tech recession? That was the question on KUOW’s “Booming” podcast that sounded more like dooming this week as it dug into Amazon’s “right-sizing,” elimination of pandemic-fueled corporate “bloat,” and what role AI is playing in the company’s largest-ever reduction in force.
KUOW also reported that the Seattle region had a net loss of 13,000 jobs last year, noting that in a normal year, Seattle has a net gain of about 40,000 jobs. Which years were (way) worse? The pandemic (2020), the Great Recession (2009) and the Dot-Com bust (2001).
“I am very nervous about what’s happening,” Joe Nguyen, the new president and CEO of the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, told KIRO 7 in a report about job losses. Jeff Shulman, the chair of the University of Washington’s Marketing and International Business Department added: “This is kind of the scariest time economically for the Seattle region since the Great Recession in 2009.”
For those now facing the prospect of job hunting, the outlook may remain scary. Not only is the market being flooded with thousands of laid off tech workers, tech-related job postings remain stuck well below pre-pandemic levels in Seattle, as GeekWire reported in December.
At least one official always manages to find the silver lining in cloudy Seattle.
“We hope this pain is short-term,” Downtown Seattle President and CEO Jon Scholes said this week. “It would be unwise to bet against Seattle in the long run — the talent pool and fundamental assets are in our favor.”
