Seattle’s job market is falling behind other major cities, and now business leaders are pressing city hall for a course correction.A new report from the Downtow
Seattle’s job market is falling behind other major cities, and now business leaders are pressing city hall for a course correction.
A new report from the Downtown Seattle Association found the Puget Sound region ranked 20th among the nation’s 30 largest metropolitan areas for employment growth from 2019 through 2025.
Regional employment has been nearly flat since 2022, growing by less than 1% a year on average.
In Seattle, some 18,000 jobs have been lost since 2024, and many of those reductions were among businesses located in the downtown core. Meanwhile, Bellevue added 5,375 jobs, and Tacoma gained 662.
Jon Scholes, DSA president and CEO, said reversing this trend will require a mix of predictable tax policy and ongoing support for the revitalization of downtown.
“It’s sluggish in Seattle when it comes to economic growth and employment growth,” Scholes said. “We've become less predictable as a place to do business and we've gotten a lot of new business and employer taxes over the last four or five years."
Scholes said city leaders should avoid adding business taxes and instead create a more stable environment for employers.
He said companies face higher costs and uncertainty about future tax policy, making Seattle more expensive for jobs than competing cities in the region and elsewhere in the country.
“We don’t need more business taxes in Seattle,” Scholes said. “We just need more businesses in our city paying taxes.”
The DSA jobs report comes after Mayor Katie Wilson submitted her preliminary city budget, which is now being debated and adjusted by members of the Seattle City Council.
Scholes praised Wilson’s proposed budget for not relying on new taxes and said the city should build on that approach with policies that give employers more confidence to grow.
The mayor has also signed an executive order intended to retain businesses and diversify Seattle’s economy.
The plan calls for a business and labor task force, faster permitting and a proposed Seattle Strategic Initiatives Fund that could invest in startups and growing companies.
The mayor’s executive order was in response to a separate, city-commissioned report that warned Seattle has become heavily dependent on a handful of large tech companies.
Ten companies generate 75% of the city’s JumpStart payroll tax revenue.
The city still has considerable strengths as a place to do business, but the challenge is keeping startups and mid-sized firms from leaving Seattle as they grow.
Scholes said what the jobs report shows is that revitalizing downtown means more workers to help fill storefronts, increase sales-tax collections and support the city’s broader tax base.
Kathy Lee, owner of the Fossil and Stone art gallery, said she is seeing more office workers return but said downtown’s retail draw has weakened because so many big-name stores have closed in recent years.
“People don’t come downtown to shop anymore,” Lee said. “They come down for the market, and Nordstrom and Ben Bridge and Fossil and Stone, we’re here along the way.”
Scholes said Seattle’s recovery will depend on both the public and private sectors working together to retain employers, attract investment, and restore downtown’s role as the economic engine of the city and region.
“I think there are some important recent signals by city hall that are going to benefit Seattle,” Scholes said. “When downtown is rocking the tax base is great.”
