Seattle Reeling Over Tech Layoffs, Especially Microsoft

By Mish Shedlock of MishTalk

Wednesday, September 24, 2025 10:56 AM EDT

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Prospects dwindle for tech jobs.

The Tech Layoff Tracker has a nice set of tools and charts that track layoffs.

The latest layoffs across all tech companies.

So far in 2025, there have been 533 layoffs at tech companies with 144,926 people impacted (549 people per day).

In 2024, there were 1,115 layoffs at tech companies w/ 238,461 people impacted (653 people per day).

Pain in Seattle

The Wall Street Journal reports Seattle, Tech Boomtown, Grapples With a Future of Fewer Tech Jobs

Hannah Andrews, a manager at Five Stones Coffee Co. in Redmond, Wash., is used to seeing tech workers in her store just off Microsoft’s main campus. But a few months ago, she started to notice a new phenomenon: People who listed Microsoft and other tech companies on their résumés were applying to become baristas.

The applicants typically had master’s degrees and experience in graphic design or marketing roles, Andrews said—sometimes senior ones. They were applying to jobs at Five Stones that would pay Redmond’s minimum wage, $16.66 an hour. Five Stones hasn’t yet hired such candidates because the coffee shop gives priority to more traditional entry-level baristas, like high-schoolers.

“They were overqualified,” Andrews said.

Led by Amazon and Microsoft, companies across Seattle have undergone round after round of layoffs in recent years, shedding tens of thousands of employees. Amazon recorded its first-ever year-over-year drop in Washington state employment in 2024. Microsoft has added only 3,000 employees in the U.S. since 2022, even though its market capitalization has roughly doubled over that period.

Between them, the two companies have laid off more than 46,000 employees since 2023, according to Layoffs.fyi, which tracks workforce reductions. That represents 85% of layoffs by Seattle-area tech companies.

As Amazon and Microsoft have made cuts—and other local tech firms including Expedia and Redfin have followed suit—the effects have rippled through Seattle’s other business sectors. Weakness in payroll and sales tax contributed to a projected $146 million shortfall in revenue over the next two years.

Restaurant and retail spending is down in the business and shopping districts surrounding Amazon’s and Microsoft’s campuses, with total transactions falling by as much as 7% in some popular areas in the past year, according to data from Square.

In the first half of 2025, around 450 restaurants closed in Seattle, or about 16% of its total. “At the halfway point of the year, we’ve already seen as many closures as we’d usually see in a full year,” said Anthony Anton, chief executive officer of the Washington Hospitality Association.

The outlook for many tech workers is dour as companies invest in software tools they can use to streamline teams. Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella has said the company is increasingly looking to AI to perform coding and other tasks once done by people. In June, Amazon said its workforce would shrink going forward.

Nonfarm Jobs by Sector

Information was never a big source of jobs. Let’s hone in further.

Nonfarm Jobs Information Detail

Information jobs peaked in March of 2001 at 3.72 million.

In November of 2011 the number of jobs slumped to 2.63 million before rebounding to 2.91 million ahead of the Covid pademic.

The Covid pandemic rebound high was 3.11 million in November of 2022.

As of August 2025, the number of information jobs fell to 2.93 million, down 5.8 percent from November 2022.

An AI-related jobs slowdown will make it difficult for those who lose an information job to find another.

For the first time since the pandemic unemployment is above openings.

The nonfarm payroll response rate is 42.6 percent with the same issues as with JOLTS

September 5, 2025: Jobs Report Misery: Only 22,000 Gain in August, June Revised to -13,000