Seattle’s economy continues to be driven by technology and online commerce. Its becoming a bigger and bigger one trick pony. I remember when the dot com bust happened, and unemployment here was over 10%. That wasn’t a pretty time for this city. Seattle isn’t invincible.
Currently, Seattle is a little more vunerable than reported.
Some of its biggest employers of skilled white collar jobs are in major trouble.
Wamu has cut thousands of jobs in state and was the biggest employer in downtown Seattle. If someone like JPmorgan does come in and buy them, the entire Seattle operation will shutdown meaning thousand of more layoffs.
Starbucks has been downsizing a lot of its workforce here.
SafeCo insurance was just bought by Liberty Mutual and many believe the majority of those jobs will be wacked and the downtown hq closed.
Microsoft is what is driving this article. They are in the midst of one of its biggest office space expansions around Seattle ever. They are currently building and leasing enough space for 10,000 new offices within the next 3 years. You can’t spit without hitting a construction crane in Redmond/Bellevue, the suburb of Seattle were microsoft is located, right now.
Boeing’s workforce is stable right now and their lines are going to be very busy for the next decade (787,777,747,737).
Amazon.com is doing well, even in this challenging retail environment.
Expedia.com is doing well.
Google is building a small campus here that will support several hundred employees.
One of the problems also is that housing prices have basically tripled in 10 years, but salaries haven’t kept up with it. You got high property taxes here as well.
Cost of living is very high here.
Thanks for the info. Interesting stuff about Seattle that I didn’t know.
Contractors are quadrupled up here in my bldg on the
west Redmond campus (MS).
Even the FTEs are doubled up.