According to GeekWire, the Seattle tech scene is facing a severe downturn with major layoffs announced this week. Amazon is laying off another 16,000 corporate employees, bringing its total cuts since October to 30,000, and is also closing all of its Fresh and Go grocery stores. Meta is cutting hundreds of workers in its Reality Labs division, which has roots in the region. Expedia Group is slashing more than 160 jobs at its Seattle headquarters. The Seattle region had a net loss of 13,000 jobs last year, a stark contrast to its typical annual gain of 40,000. Local economic leaders, including the Seattle Chamber of Commerce CEO, describe this as the most nervous they’ve been since the Great Recession.
Seattle’s Scary New Normal
Here’s the thing: a net loss of 13,000 jobs in a region that usually gains 40,000 isn’t just a bad quarter. It’s a fundamental shift. As KUOW’s analysis shows, that puts 2024 in a rare and ugly club with years like 2001 (Dot-Com bust), 2009 (Great Recession), and 2020 (pandemic). But this feels different, doesn’t it? The pandemic cuts were a sudden, external shock. These feel like a deliberate, systemic contraction from within the industry itself. Companies aren’t just pausing hiring; they’re actively dismantling whole divisions and projects they built up during the “growth at all costs” era. That has a much longer tail.
More Than Just “Right-Sizing”
When Amazon talks about eliminating “pandemic-fueled bloat” and “right-sizing,” it sounds so sterile. But the impact is brutally personal for tens of thousands of people. And the ripple effect is huge. These are high-salaried corporate jobs that support everything from restaurants to realtors. The market is now flooded with talent, but as GeekWire noted, tech job postings are still way below pre-pandemic levels. So where does all that talent go? Some will leave the region. Others will try to pivot. But a lot will just be stuck in a brutal, crowded job hunt for months. It’s a classic supply-and-demand disaster for workers.
The AI-Shaped Shadow
You can’t talk about these layoffs without mentioning the AI elephant in the room. A big question on that KUOW “Booming” podcast was what role AI plays. Is this just about cost-cutting, or is it a reallocation? I think it’s probably both. Companies are shedding roles in some areas to free up billions to pour into AI infrastructure and talent. They’re betting the future on a handful of high-cost, strategic priorities instead of a broad portfolio. For a region whose economy is tied to a few tech giants, that strategic pivot creates massive instability. It’s not that AI is directly replacing all these jobs today. It’s that capital and focus are being violently redirected toward it.
Betting Against Seattle?
Now, the official line, as from Downtown Seattle’s Jon Scholes, is that it’s “unwise to bet against Seattle in the long run.” And he has a point about the talent pool and fundamental assets. But the long run can be painfully long. The fear expressed to KIRO 7 by local leaders is very real. This isn’t just a tech correction; it’s a potential hollowing out of the city’s economic engine. The silver lining? Maybe this forces the region to diversify. Maybe it sparks more innovation outside the mega-caps. But that’s a maybe. For now, the cloud over Seattle isn’t bringing rain. It’s bringing a deep, uncertain chill.
