Jobs & Economy in Washington
Washington's economy is genuinely two economies split along the Cascade Range: Western Washington's globally significant tech-and-aerospace corridor (Amazon, Microsoft, Boeing) carries a real, current headwind from 2025-2026 tech layoffs, while Eastern Washington's agriculture, food-processing, logistics, and university-driven economy runs a materially different, less headline-driven story this record does not default to a smaller version of Seattle's.
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Learn moreWestern Washington's tech-and-aerospace anchor, stated with real precision about headquarters location
Amazon is genuinely headquartered in Seattle, though its own Seattle headcount has fallen from a 2020 peak of roughly 60,000 to roughly 49,000 in 2026, with Amazon ceding its title as Seattle's largest employer to the University of Washington as the company shifted corporate headcount toward nearby Bellevue (Amazon's combined Seattle-Bellevue corporate headcount ran around 65,000 as of the same reporting). Microsoft is genuinely headquartered in Redmond -- a separate Eastside city, not Seattle proper -- with its Redmond campus alone housing roughly 50,000 employees. Boeing's real, still-massive Everett manufacturing plant (the largest building on Earth by volume, employing a disclosed 30,000-36,000 workers depending on source) does NOT make Boeing Seattle-headquartered: Boeing's own corporate headquarters left the Puget Sound region for Chicago in 2001, then for Arlington, Virginia in 2022.
A real, current tech-sector headwind, disclosed honestly alongside genuine long-run strength
Seattle-area unemployment rose to 5.1% in November 2025, up 1.1 percentage points year-over-year and running well above the 4.5% national rate for the same month, driven substantially by tech-sector layoffs -- roughly 13,000 people were laid off in the Seattle-King County region in 2025 alone, more than half in the information (tech) sector, with 7,453 King County workers covered by WARN notices through June 8, 2026 (roughly three-quarters of 2026 layoffs concentrated in the information/tech sector specifically). More recent, narrower King County data showed some improvement, with unemployment easing to 4.7% by May 2026 (down from 4.9% in April 2026) -- a real, current headwind layered against Washington's genuinely dominant, durable tech-employer base, disclosed together rather than either alone.
Eastern Washington runs a genuinely different economy, not a smaller Seattle
Eastern Washington -- anchored by Spokane, the completely independent dominant metro of the state's 'Inland Northwest' region, and the Columbia Basin/Tri-Cities agricultural and logistics belt -- runs on agriculture, food processing, logistics, and university-driven employment (Washington State University in Pullman, among others), without the tech-sector concentration that defines the west side. Spokane's median household income ($70,064 city / $78,582 county) runs below Tacoma's ($88,461 city), a real, disclosed trade-off against Spokane's genuinely lower cost of housing.
A real, current wrinkle: data-center-driven electricity demand growth in Eastern Washington
Eastern Washington's cheap hydropower has begun drawing real, current data-center investment and demand growth, a factor utilities cited among the drivers of statewide 2026 electricity rate increases (2.5%-12% depending on utility) -- a genuinely new and current thread in Eastern Washington's traditionally agriculture-and-logistics economic story, worth watching rather than a settled trend.
Key takeaways
- Amazon (Seattle), Microsoft (Redmond -- not Seattle proper), and Boeing's Everett manufacturing plant (though Boeing's own HQ is in Arlington, VA) anchor Western Washington's globally significant tech-and-aerospace economy.
- Seattle-area unemployment rose to 5.1% in November 2025 amid substantial tech-sector layoffs (roughly 13,000 in 2025), though King County's rate eased to 4.7% by May 2026 -- a real, current headwind against genuine long-run tech-sector strength.
- Eastern Washington runs a genuinely different economy (agriculture, logistics, food processing, university employment anchored by WSU Pullman), not a smaller version of Seattle's -- with a real, disclosed lower median household income than Puget Sound metros.
- Eastern Washington's cheap hydropower is drawing real, current data-center investment, a genuinely new thread in that region's economic story.
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