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Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →The Downtown Seattle Association (DSA) estimates that downtown Seattle had about 13,000 fewer jobs in 2025 than in 2024. Across Seattle as a whole, it reports a loss of more than 18,000 jobs, while Bellevue added 5,375. Those city-level changes point in different directions, but they do not show that the jobs lost in Seattle moved to Bellevue.
What the 13,000 figure measures
The DSA’s estimate is for jobs located in downtown Seattle, not a count of individual workers who left the city. The association says downtown accounted for about 70% of Seattle’s total employment decline between 2024 and 2025. Its estimates draw on Puget Sound Regional Council and Washington State Employment Security Department data, using first-quarter figures for each year. The comparison is therefore between Q1 2024 and Q1 2025, rather than a count of every job change throughout the calendar year.
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The DSA says downtown Seattle still has more than 300,000 jobs and remains the region’s largest employment center. The 13,000 estimate describes a substantial one-year decline, not the disappearance of downtown as a major job center.
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These are total employment changes reported by the DSA for 2024–2025. They are not tech-sector-only figures.
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| Geography | Reported employment change, 2024–2025 | Measure and source |
|---|---|---|
| Downtown Seattle | About 13,000 fewer jobs | DSA estimate; Q1 year-to-year comparison |
| Seattle citywide | More than 18,000 fewer jobs | DSA report |
| Bellevue | 5,375 more jobs | DSA report |
| Tacoma | 662 more jobs | DSA report |
The downtown estimate is part of Seattle’s citywide loss, not an additional 13,000 on top of it. The DSA’s figures indicate that most of Seattle’s decline was concentrated downtown.
Did Seattle’s lost jobs move to Bellevue?
The figures do not establish that. They compare net employment changes in different cities; they do not track individual positions, workers, or employers relocating across Lake Washington. Bellevue could add jobs while Seattle loses jobs for different reasons, and the city totals alone cannot distinguish among them.
Company headcounts provide context but do not resolve that question. GeekWire, citing Bellevue’s Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, reported that Amazon employed 15,700 people in Bellevue at the end of 2025 and about 49,000 in Seattle. Those figures describe one employer’s workforce by location; they do not identify the source of Bellevue’s net job gains or show that those roles were transferred from Seattle.
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The DSA also reports a separate comparison with 2019. It estimates downtown Seattle’s 2025 workforce was 22% below its 2019 level, while Bellevue was 6% below its own 2019 level. These figures describe the distance from a pre-pandemic baseline; they are not the same measure as the 2024–2025 change.
At the broader regional level, the DSA ranks Puget Sound 20th among the 30 largest U.S. metropolitan areas for employment growth from 2019 to 2025. It reports growth of 1.7% for Puget Sound, compared with 25% for Austin and 14% each for Dallas/Fort Worth and Nashville. That metro-wide comparison provides a different perspective from city-level job changes and should not be read as a measure of downtown Seattle or Bellevue alone.
Why might Bellevue be gaining while Seattle loses jobs?
The reported totals show the divergence; they do not by themselves explain it. In its June 2026 report, the DSA argues that Seattle’s business taxes and broader business climate contributed to downtown job losses and other economic effects. That is the association’s position, not a causal finding established by the employment counts.
The reviewed figures do not isolate the effect of Seattle’s JumpStart payroll expense tax from remote-work patterns, technology-sector changes, interest rates, or other possible influences. Nor do they establish how much of the city-level divergence reflects employers’ location choices, changes in industry employment, or other factors. Pinning down causes would require an analysis designed to separate those effects.
One useful distinction is between evidence of a trend and evidence of its cause: the DSA’s data support its reported employment comparisons, while its explanation for why Seattle declined is an argument that should be weighed as such.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the report says about downtown’s importance
DSA president and CEO Jon Scholes described the figures as a warning, while emphasizing downtown’s continuing regional role: “Downtown Seattle is still the largest and most important employment center in our region, but these numbers are a clear warning that we cannot take that position for granted.” He also said, “Seattle has reinvented its economy many times, and we have every reason to believe we can do it again.” These are the association leader’s assessments, not additional employment findings.
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