Has Seattle passed peak tech?
In a 2023 column, I reported on census data showing that tech employment in Seattle surged during the early years of the pandemic. From 2019 to 2022, the number of Seattle residents working in tech occupations jumped by roughly 10,000 — from about 58,700 to a record 68,700 — even as overall employment in the city barely budged.
With that surge, tech workers accounted for about 15% of the 467,500 employed residents in Seattle, or about 1 in 7 workers. No other major U.S. city came close to matching that number, not even San Jose or San Francisco…