Seattle Loses Top Spot: Which City Now Has the Highest Concentration of Tech Workers?

Has Seattle Passed 'Peak Tech'?

In a 2023 column, census data revealed 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.

The latest census data suggests that was the high-water mark for tech in Seattle.

Seattle Ranks Second for Tech Workers

Seattle ranked No. 2 in 2024 for the share of tech workers among its employed residents among the 50 largest U.S. cities.

New 2024 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey show the share of Seattle residents working in computer and mathematical occupations has declined, and Seattle is no longer No. 1 among major cities.

An estimated 65,000 Seattle residents were employed in computer and mathematical occupations in 2024. That estimate is down by about 3,700 from 2022. While that decline isn’t statistically significant, given the survey’s margin of error, it’s a clear indication that the number of tech workers isn’t growing. And given recent layoffs, a lower estimate makes sense.

And because total employment in the city grew by more than 20,000 to 488,000 in this period, that drop translates into tech workers making up a smaller share of the workforce—roughly 13%, or about 1 in 8 workers.

San Jose moved into the top spot among major cities, though its share of tech workers is only slightly higher at 13.5%.

From 2019 through 2022, Seattle’s tech workforce expanded rapidly, fueled in large part by aggressive hiring at companies like Amazon, which added tens of thousands of employees nationwide. That hiring spree helped make tech an even more dominant force in the local economy.

Since then, the momentum has reversed. Beginning in late 2022, major firms with large Seattle footprints, including Amazon, Microsoft and Meta, announced layoffs, hiring freezes and internal restructuring. Thousands of tech jobs were cut.

Even with the decline, Seattle’s tech footprint still exceeds that of San Francisco, which ranked third at around 11%. Austin, Texas, (10%) and Washington, D.C., (7%) rounded out the top five.

Miami had the lowest share of tech workers among its employed population, at just around 2%. Fresno, Calif.; Detroit; El Paso, Texas; and Memphis were only slightly higher.

Tech jobs typically pay very well. Last year, the median earnings for King County residents employed in “computer and mathematical” jobs—the census category overwhelmingly composed of tech workers—hit $163,600. No other job category came close to that figure.

Those high wages have supported consumer spending and boosted tax revenues, so a decline in tech hiring will ripple through the city’s economy.

By raw numbers rather than percentages, Seattle ranked fourth among the largest cities for tech workers. New York was No. 1 with nearly 188,000 people employed in tech jobs, but they accounted for only about 5% of the city’s total employment of 4.15 million.

In 2022, Redmond ranked No. 1 among all cities with at least 65,000 residents for the share of tech workers, and that’s still true in the 2024 data. Nearly 17,000 residents were employed in tech occupations, representing almost 36% of the 47,500 employed people living in Microsoft’s hometown.