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Tech might not have been kind to the cities of SF and Seattle sure, but tech built the greater metropolitan regions of both of these areas, where Seattle metro'

Tech might not have been kind to the cities of SF and Seattle sure, but tech built the greater metropolitan regions of both of these areas, where Seattle metro's population has doubled as a result of the tech boom since 1980, and the bay area's population has grown by ~70% in the same time frame, for reference, this isn't that far off from the nominal growth seen in greater Los Angeles during the same period.

WalterBright 8y ago
Seattle was created to supply the Yukon gold rush miners. Then it was heavily dependent on Weyerhauser (lumber). Then it was Boeing (will the last person who leaves Seattle please turn out the lights.) Now tech. Seattle's always been a one horse economy. (Something like 15% of workers in Seattle are Amazonians.)
- mulmen 8y ago
  Can you provide a source on the 15% number? Is that 15% of all employed people or just in a specific sector. If it is a specific sector how is that defined?
  - Latteland 8y ago
    This person is wrong unless you define the worker market in some weird way that excludes other large employers like Boeing and uw. This article from 2018 lists other large employers, and Amazon looks smaller than expected https://www.tripsavvy.com/biggest-seattle-area-employers-2965051 https://www.tripsavvy.com/biggest-seattle-area-employers-296...
    - harryh 8y ago
      I think the difference is "Seattle" vs "Seattle area." Google says that Seattle has a population of ~725k. Let's say that half of them are working. 725k * 50% * 15% ~= 54k. 54k Amazon employees in the city limits sounds at least in the ballpark.
      - WalterBright 8y ago
        The "Seattle area" includes Bellevue, Tacoma, etc., which about triples the number of people.
  - WalterBright 8y ago
    I read it in one of the flurry of newspaper articles in the last couple days about Amazon, but don't recall which. Doing some googling: Amazon Aug 2017 had 40,000 workers in Seattle: https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/thanks-to-amazon-seattle-is-now-americas-biggest-company-town/ https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/thanks-to-amazo... Workers in Seattle are currently 425,827 https://datausa.io/profile/geo/seattle-wa/ https://datausa.io/profile/geo/seattle-wa/ So the 15% figure is plausible.

WalterBright 8y ago

Seattle was created to supply the Yukon gold rush miners. Then it was heavily dependent on Weyerhauser (lumber). Then it was Boeing (will the last person who leaves Seattle please turn out the lights.) Now tech. Seattle's always been a one horse economy. (Something like 15% of workers in Seattle are Amazonians.)

mulmen 8y ago
Can you provide a source on the 15% number? Is that 15% of all employed people or just in a specific sector. If it is a specific sector how is that defined?
- Latteland 8y ago
  This person is wrong unless you define the worker market in some weird way that excludes other large employers like Boeing and uw. This article from 2018 lists other large employers, and Amazon looks smaller than expected https://www.tripsavvy.com/biggest-seattle-area-employers-2965051 https://www.tripsavvy.com/biggest-seattle-area-employers-296...
  - harryh 8y ago
    I think the difference is "Seattle" vs "Seattle area." Google says that Seattle has a population of ~725k. Let's say that half of them are working. 725k * 50% * 15% ~= 54k. 54k Amazon employees in the city limits sounds at least in the ballpark.
    - WalterBright 8y ago
      The "Seattle area" includes Bellevue, Tacoma, etc., which about triples the number of people.
- WalterBright 8y ago
  I read it in one of the flurry of newspaper articles in the last couple days about Amazon, but don't recall which. Doing some googling: Amazon Aug 2017 had 40,000 workers in Seattle: https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/thanks-to-amazon-seattle-is-now-americas-biggest-company-town/ https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/thanks-to-amazo... Workers in Seattle are currently 425,827 https://datausa.io/profile/geo/seattle-wa/ https://datausa.io/profile/geo/seattle-wa/ So the 15% figure is plausible.