Seattleruns on a handful of strong industries. If you’re job-hunting or weighing a move, here’s where the opportunities (and the big-name employers) are.
Top industries & employers
Cloud computing & software
Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Meta, Salesforce, Snowflake
Amazon and Microsoft between them make this the largest cloud engineering cluster on earth, and nearly every other major tech company runs a large satellite office here to hire from that pool.
Aerospace
Boeing, Blue Origin, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Toray
Boeing's Everett and Renton plants remain among the region's largest private employers, and Blue Origin in Kent has built a serious space-hardware workforce around them.
Retail & consumer
Costco, Starbucks, Nordstrom, REI, Amazon Retail
An unusual concentration of national retail headquarters — Costco in Issaquah, Starbucks in SoDo and Nordstrom downtown are all head offices, not just stores.
Global health & life sciences
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Gates Foundation, PATH, Adaptive Biotechnologies
South Lake Union hosts one of the densest global health research clusters in the world, anchored by the Gates Foundation and the Hutch.
Gaming
Nintendo of America, Valve, Bungie, ArenaNet, Xbox Game Studios
The Seattle area is one of the three or four most significant game development centres in the US, with Nintendo's American headquarters in Redmond.
Maritime, logistics & fishing
Port of Seattle, Trident Seafoods, Expeditors, Alaska Airlines
The oldest part of the economy and still substantial — the North Pacific fishing fleet is based here, and the port is a primary US gateway to Asia.
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