Seattle area has nation's second-biggest drop in job listings
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The Seattle metro area has seen one of the sharpest drops in online job postings nationwide, according to jobs site Indeed.
Why it matters: The labor market is slowing, particularly for white-collar professionals in tech-heavy cities, Axios' Emily Peck writes.
Zoom in: As of late October, Seattle-area job listings on Indeed were down 35% from February 2020.
- That's the second-biggest drop in the country, behind only the San Francisco metro area, which fell 37%.
What they're saying: For several years locally, "jobs were chasing people," Paul Turek, a labor economist with the state Employment Security Department, told Axios.
- "Now we're kind of back to a situation where people are chasing jobs."
Between the lines: Rising interest rates during the pandemic contributed to a weakening labor market, both nationally and in Washington, Turek said.
- Many businesses have also been waiting to gauge the effects of Trump administration policies, including tariffs and tax changes, he said — a "wait and see" approach he described as "no hire, no fire."
Beyond that, Washington state's tech industry has been transforming rapidly in response to developments in artificial intelligence, Turek said.
- That's led to restructuring and layoffs at some Seattle-area companies, including Amazon and Microsoft.
- The state's recent budget shortfalls may also have affected some local jobs, Turek said.
The big picture: Small metro areas that gained jobs had labor markets more weighted toward health care, and leisure and hospitality, says Allison Shrivastava, an economist at Indeed Hiring Lab.
- Those two sectors accounted for 100% of net job gains in 2025 so far, Bloomberg recently reported.
The white-collar pullback also aligns with the Trump administration's job cuts and the federal hiring freeze in place for much of the year.
- Listings in the Washington, D.C., area have fallen 24% — driven partly by the White House drive to cut the federal workforce and a pullback in government contracting work.
What we're watching: Employment numbers set for release this month will shed further light on economic trends nationally and in Washington.
- The Federal Reserve is also expected to cut rates again this month to help stimulate the labor market, Turek said, but those effects may not be seen for six months to a year.