#employment + #washington-state

The monthly employment report gives a snapshot of Washington's job market. It includes the unemployment rate for Washington and the nation, the number of people working or looking for work in Washington, and the number of jobs in each industry. You can use this report to understand overall economic trends and how different industries are doing.

In 2025, the central Puget Sound region lost 12,900 jobs. If you exclude the anomaly of the COVID-19 pandemic, this is the first time the region has experienced an annual decrease of jobs since 2009, during the depths of the Great Recession.

Historically, jobs in the Puget Sound region have grown by between 30,000-40,000 jobs per year. Employment growth during the Amazon boom was significantly higher, peaking at 61,100 jobs added in 2016.