Metro Job Market Pulse · General Market Conditions · October 2026
General Market Conditions Labor Market Report: Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA MSA — October 2026
Seattle's falling jobless rate hides a shrinking labor force.
King County unemployment eased to 4.7-4.8% even as Washington shed 15,400 jobs statewide in September and Seattle's job postings index of 67 lags most major U.S. metros.
Free archive edition. Published by WageScape as sent to subscribers; data as of October 2026.
Key indicators
- Seattle metro unemployment rate: 4.8% — vs. 4.1% national rate, Sept. 2026
- Washington state job change: -15,400 — Seasonally adjusted, September 2026
- King County WARN-covered workers: 6,912 — Year-to-date through October 2026
- Seattle Job Postings Index: 67 — Among lowest of major U.S. metros (Indeed)
Key takeaways
Falling unemployment is masking labor-force exit.
King County's rate dropped to 4.7-4.8% even as the labor force contracted and Washington shed 15,400 jobs statewide in September. A declining rate driven by fewer job-seekers is a weaker signal than it first appears for regional economic momentum.
Tech contraction is broad-based but not metro-defining.
Oracle (359), Amazon (121), Salesforce (59), Zillow (91) and more than a dozen other named employers have filed layoffs in 2026, pushing King County WARN notices to 6,912 workers. Yet Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Meta still rank among the region's largest advertisers for talent, measured by job ads, which track demand and often cover several openings each, indicating selective repositioning within firms instead of a region-wide retreat from the sector.
Healthcare and skilled trades show the clearest wage momentum.
Registered Nurse advertised pay rose to a metro median of $117,994 and Electrician pay climbed to $88,400, both outpacing national medians by wide margins. These gains point to where local labor demand remains tight despite softness in tech and white-collar sectors.
Public-sector job losses deserve closer tracking than tech headlines suggest.
Washington's September job losses were driven more by government and private education/health services employment than by the widely covered tech layoffs. Public-sector stability is typically a steadying force in regional downturns, so a pullback there carries distinct implications for local fiscal planning and service delivery.
Median advertised pay by role — Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA MSA
| Role | 25th percentile | Median advertised pay | 75th percentile | Metro trend | National median |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail Sales Associate | $36,046 | $42,120 | $45,760 | Stable | $33,340 |
| Retail Cashier | $35,630 | $39,520 | $44,408 | Stable | $31,268 |
| Warehouse/Fulfillment Associate | $38,480 | $45,240 | $47,840 | Moderate increase | $38,480 |
| CDL Truck Driver | $60,060 | $74,565 | $82,060 | Moderate increase | $78,872 |
| Delivery Driver | $36,365 | $47,500 | $53,500 | Significant increase | $34,826 |
| Construction Laborer | $41,381 | $50,960 | $52,116 | Stable | $40,727 |
| Electrician | $69,520 | $88,400 | $98,800 | Significant increase | $71,835 |
| Manufacturing Production Worker/Assembler | $38,841 | $46,618 | $52,000 | Moderate decline | $39,520 |
| Customer Service Representative | $38,925 | $45,032 | $48,500 | Stable | $39,520 |
| Food Service Worker | $36,008 | $45,045 | $48,100 | Stable | $33,764 |
| Certified Nursing Assistant / Home Health Aide | $45,344 | $50,960 | $53,498 | Stable | $41,600 |
| Administrative Assistant/Office Clerk | $41,579 | $53,040 | $57,867 | Moderate increase | $44,552 |
| HVAC Technician | $67,393 | $81,120 | $93,500 | Stable | $71,406 |
| Registered Nurse | $98,857 | $117,994 | $128,754 | Moderate increase | $102,252 |
| Software Engineer | $135,000 | $177,250 | $193,300 | Moderate increase | $154,403 |
| Data Engineer | $99,166 | $145,247 | $158,888 | Stable | $138,000 |
| Accountant | $62,400 | $76,850 | $85,011 | Moderate increase | $72,000 |
| Financial Analyst | $86,942 | $101,794 | $110,950 | Stable | $94,646 |
| HR Generalist/Manager | $63,202 | $84,167 | $90,785 | Moderate increase | $74,477 |
| Marketing Specialist | $46,544 | $65,000 | $77,500 | Stable | $62,916 |
| Operations Manager | $83,986 | $100,600 | $111,959 | Significant decline | $86,294 |
| Elementary/Secondary School Teacher | $45,760 | $61,723 | $71,228 | Moderate increase | $55,908 |
| Account Manager | $70,000 | $104,563 | $131,000 | Significant increase | $94,009 |
| Warehouse Manager * | $62,400 | $76,250 | $80,000 | Significant increase | $75,000 |
| Business Analyst | $84,016 | $102,500 | $114,172 | Moderate increase | $98,302 |
* State-level figure shown where metro postings were too few.
WageScape's median is calibrated to correct for spurious low-value postings (reported as the 60th percentile of raw advertised pay). Download: CSV · JSON
Industry snapshot
| Sector | Median advertised pay | Pay trend | Postings trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Construction | $81,000 | Moderate increase | Moderate decline |
| Manufacturing | $116,480 | Significant increase | Significant decline |
| Retail Trade | $69,012 | Significant increase | Significant increase |
| Transportation, Warehousing & Utilities | $69,091 | Significant decline | Significant decline |
| Information | $152,540 | Significant increase | Significant decline |
| Financial Activities | $88,739 | Moderate decline | Significant decline |
| Professional & Business Services | $123,984 | Moderate decline | Significant decline |
| Education & Health Services | $77,116 | Significant increase | Moderate decline |
| Leisure & Hospitality | $44,720 | Stable | Stable |
| Government | $76,353 | Significant increase | Significant decline |
Local market conditions
Seattle metro unemployment held at 4.8% in September, now tracking above the national rate of 4.1% for the thirteenth straight month, a reversal of the region's historic pattern of outperforming the U.S. average. The decline in local joblessness has coincided with 18,000 jobs lost in Seattle proper since 2024 and a tech-sector layoff count that has already exceeded all of 2024 and 2025 combined, suggesting the improving rate reflects workers leaving the labor force as much as new job creation.
What it means
Falling unemployment paired with job losses is an unusual combination that complicates a straightforward reading of local economic health — commerce leaders weighing expansion or investment decisions should look past the headline rate toward labor-force participation and sector-specific postings data. Healthcare's continued strength (34,635 King County job openings in August, up 4.0% month-over-month) alongside tech contraction points to a metro economy rebalancing across sectors instead of contracting uniformly. Current conditions suggest monitoring sector-level job ad volume (job ads signal hiring demand; one ad often covers several openings) alongside WARN filings before drawing conclusions about overall local business climate from the unemployment rate alone.
Looking ahead
Early indicator: Seattle's Indeed Job Postings Index sits at 67, among the lowest of any major metro nationally. Watch whether this gap to the national trend (Job Postings Index 103.8, up 2.8% year-over-year) narrows or widens over the next two months as a read on whether local demand is stabilizing or falling further behind.
Data quality concern: The Seattle-King County Workforce Development Council flagged inflated job posting counts from 'ghost jobs' in late October. Commerce leaders and economists citing local job-ad volume as a demand signal should discount raw counts accordingly, since postings track hiring demand and may not translate to actual openings.
Potential inflection point: Gebbers Farms' 3,445-worker WARN notice in Brewster (effective Nov. 25) is the largest in the state and lands outside the metro core, but will influence statewide labor-force and participation figures that frame Seattle's relative position. Track whether it shifts the narrative on agricultural and seasonal labor availability heading into winter reporting.
Worth watching: Washington's minimum wage rises to $17.73/hour on January 1, 2027, a 3.5% increase. Retail, hospitality and food-service employers in the metro, where advertised pay for frontline roles has been largely flat this month, may see compressed wage differentials as the floor rises faster than posted rates for adjacent roles.
Methodology
Advertised pay from active employer job postings, not survey data. WageScape's median is calibrated to correct for spurious low-value postings: distribution analysis shows roughly the lowest 10% of raw values are erroneous entries, so the reported median is the 60th percentile of raw advertised pay. WageScape observes 98% of U.S. job openings daily.
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