Report: Downtown Seattle lost 13,000 jobs in a year, while Bellevue’s tech hub boomed

SEATTLE — A new analysis is putting a massive number on downtown Seattle’s employment struggles: an estimated 13,000 jobs disappeared from the city’s downtown core between 2024 and 2025.

According to an analysis released by the Downtown Seattle Association, Seattle as a whole lost 18,065 jobs during that period. Roughly 70% of those losses were concentrated downtown.

Meanwhile, across Lake Washington, Bellevue moved in the opposite direction.

Bellevue added 5,375 jobs during the same period.

That contrast is fueling a new debate over Seattle’s economic future, particularly as the region’s technology industry continues shifting where its employees work.

Tech is at the center of the shift

The largest Seattle declines were concentrated in information and technology, professional services and construction.

Amazon is a major piece of the regional story.

The company still employs approximately 49,000 people in Seattle, according to GeekWire, but it has reduced its Seattle office footprint and dramatically expanded its presence in Bellevue.

By the end of 2025, Amazon employed approximately 15,700 workers in Bellevue, making it the city’s largest employer.

That doesn’t mean every job added in Bellevue represents a job transferred directly out of Seattle. But the numbers show a significant geographic shift in where employment growth is happening inside the region.