The region’s largest employment centers pull workers across city lines, while some of its wealthiest communities remain primarily places to live.
656,821 local jobs make it the center of a labor market that extends far beyond the city boundary.
That makes changes in its employers, office use, and transit demand regional events—not merely city-level ones.
Its local job base changed +39% during that period.
The useful next question is whether that came from one employer, a broader industry cluster, or many smaller businesses—because each creates a different kind of durability.
A high median household income sits alongside just 0.11 local jobs per resident.
That makes access to employment elsewhere—and the durability of remote work—especially important to the city’s future.
Cities high on income but low on jobs per resident depend more heavily on regional job centers, remote work, and the transportation links between home and work.
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These are dated local profiles, not one synchronized survey. Each city link opens the full list and the broader sector and commute context.
The region’s biggest university and its biggest technology employer each support roughly 50,000 Seattle jobs. Their hiring, office, and commute decisions can move neighborhood demand at a scale few cities face.
Amazon, T-Mobile, and Meta dominate Bellevue’s anchor list. That concentration helps explain the city’s high incomes and office demand—and why shifts in technology and telecom hiring are felt well beyond individual campuses.
The city’s current table reports 15,006 Boeing employees—down from 38,000 in its 2016 comparison column. Providence Swedish and Everett Public Schools now form a much larger share of the visible anchor base, while aerospace decisions still matter greatly to the city.
EvergreenHealth and Google together provide about one in five Kirkland jobs. The rest of the top ten spans education, government, retail, truck manufacturing, electronics, games, and behavioral health—a more varied base than its tech reputation suggests.
Auburn’s four largest anchors represent four different economic pillars: aerospace, public education, tribal enterprise, and health care. Boeing is largest, but the list is less dependent on a single kind of institution than many peer cities.
Microsoft is not merely Redmond’s largest employer; its campus workforce is larger than the next four employers combined many times over. The city’s housing, traffic, and daytime economy are unusually tied to one company’s choices.
Mental health care, schools, transit, and higher education account for about one in five Lakewood jobs before its private employers are counted. The city’s employment base is closely tied to public services and care work, with manufacturing and distribution adding a second layer.
The school district is the largest employer, while construction, biotech, medical devices, higher education, telecommunications, and advanced manufacturing all appear in the top ten. Together these employers account for 39% of city employment—large enough that their expansions and contractions can reshape Bothell quickly.
The city identifies Puget Sound Naval Shipyard as West Sound’s largest employer and reports that government supplied about half of Bremerton jobs in 2022. Olympic College adds a second major public anchor, while the hospital’s move to Silverdale removed a former center of employment from the city.
MultiCare’s approved Good Samaritan expansion could add as many as 200 hospital beds, while the school district reports 4,100 employees across a service area much larger than the city. Health care and education are major anchors, but the fairgrounds and retail districts create a visitor economy those job counts do not capture.
Schools and city government lead the local anchor list, followed by groceries, big-box retail, and Cobalt Enterprises manufacturing. It is a resident-serving employment base, and the city’s own trestle campaign shows how strongly local employers still depend on the US 2 connection to the rest of the region.
Costco’s global headquarters reports 13,000 employees in Central Issaquah, and the city says roughly nine of its ten largest employers sit on the valley floor. That concentration makes Central Issaquah’s office use, transportation, and planned housing central to the whole city’s economy.
Des Moines is primarily residential, but its largest employment anchors serve students, air transportation, local government, and older adults. That makes public budgets, enrollment, federal aviation activity, and the care economy more consequential than a conventional office cycle.
Airport operations, airlines, hotels, food service, freight, parking, and rental cars collectively serve a daily population many times larger than SeaTac’s resident count. The city reports more than 40,000 local jobs across over 900 businesses and institutions.
Schools, parks, ferries, and a local grocer lead this small employment base. The list describes an economy built around island life and public services, while the ferry connects many residents to jobs elsewhere.
Bastyr University, Safeway, and Dollar Tree are the city’s three largest named employers. Kenmore also reports 1,793 small businesses and highlights Kenmore Air, Kenmore Camera, and its waterfront and brewing businesses—economic activity that a top-employer table alone would miss.
The city says no local worksite has 100 or more full-time employees beginning the workday in the morning commute window. That does not mean there are no jobs; it means employment is dispersed across smaller workplaces, making regional commute access more consequential than any single local campus.
No local worksite meets the state’s commute-trip-reduction definition of a major employer.
Full employer profile →The municipal airport hosts more than 170 businesses, while Smokey Point combines Amazon, Walmart, Safeway, and Lowe’s and the medical district is anchored by Cascade Valley Hospital. The story is not one dominant company; it is several employment districts growing along different transportation corridors.
The city names Fred Meyer and Costco as regional retail draws and is deliberately building a larger medical hub. But its plan also records 10,253 residents leaving for work versus 3,922 people arriving in 2020, while local retail and service wages trail resident earnings. The useful story is the mismatch—not a pretend ranking the city does not publish.
Fast-ferry access makes Port Orchard a more plausible home base for Seattle workers, while rapid local growth is creating demand for shops, services, schools, construction, and a stronger downtown. The useful test is whether the city adds enough everyday work and commerce to mature into a complete center—or mainly becomes a longer-distance commuter market.
The city publishes a current economic-development element and detailed growth plans, but not a verified city-only ranking of individual employers with headcounts.
Full employer profile →The city says residents rely heavily on employers and retailers elsewhere, while Snoqualmie Falls, the railway museum, and outdoor recreation draw more than 2.2 million visitors a year. The practical question is how much of that footfall becomes durable local business activity.
The city’s current strategy describes regional employer dependence and tourism opportunities, but does not publish a city-only ranked employer list.
Full employer profile →The city publishes sector shares and the live-work gap, but not a verified ranked list of individual employers.
Full employer profile →Edgewood describes itself as primarily a community of commuters, with slow local job growth and retail competition from larger centers. Its strategy is to cluster shops, services, workplaces, and new housing in Town Center so more resident spending stays in the city instead of passing along Meridian Avenue.
The city documents its commuter economy and Town Center strategy, but does not publish a verified ranked list of individual employers.
Full employer profile →The city counted 2,706 jobs in 2023—about 500 more than in 2015. Accommodation and food, health care, professional services, and education form a balanced top tier, with much of the recent gain linked to Newcastle Commons. That diversity matters more here than a single anchor name.
The city publishes current industry and commute detail but does not name or rank individual employers.
Full employer profile →The current city plan emphasizes small businesses, home occupations, and Town Center growth, but does not publish a verified ranked employer list or local company headcounts.
Full employer profile →Schools, elder care, groceries, furniture manufacturing, a private school, and city government account for about a third of Poulsbo employment. That mix helps explain why the city behaves as North Kitsap’s everyday service center rather than only a residential or visitor town.
St. Anthony Hospital is one of only two city worksites covered by the commute-reduction plan and is expanding an 80-bed campus. The city also identifies the YMCA and Metagenics as important anchors, while downtown and waterfront businesses serve visitors and residents in smaller establishments.
The city’s anchor list includes parcel delivery, food distribution and production, building products, medical supply, tribal enterprise, auto-oriented retail, and city government. That breadth explains why Fife draws many more workers than its population—and why I-5 and Port of Tacoma access are economic infrastructure.
The city reports about 17,000 workers alongside roughly 11,000 residents. Its anchor list joins national distribution operations with outdoor brands, furniture and cabinet makers, food producers, auto retail, and locally rooted coffee and salsa companies—a more varied industrial economy than the warehouse label suggests.
The school district is the only employer the city places above 300 local FTEs. Its named private anchors are groceries, home improvement, auto sales, restaurants, pets, and construction, while most Snohomish businesses employ fewer than ten people. The small-business base matters more here than a corporate-campus story would suggest.
The city documents a commuter economy and its local-business strategy, but does not publish a verified ranked employer list or company headcounts.
Full employer profile →West Milton already concentrates commercial and light-manufacturing space, while the former quarry is gaining a large warehouse and Pacific Highway is positioned for flexible space that can house offices, labs, assembly, storage, restaurants, and start-ups. Which uses actually arrive will determine whether Milton becomes a stronger job center or primarily a distribution address.
The city identifies employment districts and development opportunities, but does not publish a verified ranked list of individual employers.
Full employer profile →Most newly licensed firms have two or fewer employees, while 89% of people working in Duvall live outside the city. Safeway and Ace Hardware are the two major retail tenants the plan names. For local businesses, worker housing and the trip into town matter as much as customer demand.
The city’s adopted plan sets a business and employment strategy, but does not publish a defensible current ranking of individual employers.
Full employer profile →The city’s plan prioritizes Main Street, mixed-use centers, youth jobs, medical services, recreation, and small-business retention because residents now leave town for many jobs and purchases. Success would mean more useful destinations and family-wage work—not simply more commercial square footage beside the highway.
The city publishes a detailed business-development strategy, but not a verified ranked employer list or local company headcounts.
Full employer profile →The city publishes its employment target and small-business policies, but not a verified ranked list of individual employers.
Full employer profile →The town’s 2044 plan provides capacity for 190 additional homes but only 10 additional jobs. Existing work is concentrated in schools, municipal services, food, small retail, real estate, and household finance, so regional job access will remain more important to residents than local employer recruitment.
The town identifies its downtown and public-service economy, but does not publish a verified ranked employer list or company headcounts.
Full employer profile →Nine in ten respondents to the city’s planning survey said they rely heavily on the Towne Center and Manhattan Village. That makes business retention and a better mix of shops and services along First Avenue South more relevant to daily life—and the city’s tax base—than chasing a single large employer.
The city publishes a commercial-center strategy and community priorities, but not a verified ranked employer list or local company headcounts.
Full employer profile →The city publishes employment totals and the number of home occupations, but not a verified ranked employer list or organization-level headcounts.
Full employer profile →The city publishes current sector and commute detail, but not a verified ranked employer list or organization-level headcounts.
Full employer profile →The city had about 1,083 jobs in 2024 and a 2044 target of 2,126. Its industrial land can support resource-linked manufacturing, while recreation and visitor services build on the Mountain Loop setting; the challenge is adding enough infrastructure and employers to make those opportunities real without turning the landscape that draws people here into a casualty of growth.
Official plans describe industrial land, small-firm conditions, and the employment target, but do not publish a current verified ranking of employers.
Full employer profile →The city found capacity for roughly 6,700 additional jobs—far above the 325 jobs it is planning to add by 2044—with most potential concentrated in heavy commercial and light-industrial zones. The real question is not whether land exists, but what kinds of employers arrive and how industrial growth is buffered from nearby homes and schools.
The city publishes job capacity by zone and an industrial-development strategy, but not a verified ranked employer list or local company headcounts.
Full employer profile →The city publishes an employment total and employer types, but not a verified ranked list or organization-level headcounts.
Full employer profile →The current plan publishes job totals, targets, capacity, and sectors, but does not rank individual employers or provide organization-level headcounts.
Full employer profile →The city names the school district, Remlinger Farms, and several small manufacturers as its principal job anchors. With limited highway access and more homes than jobs, Carnation is betting that farms, trails, concerts, and a stronger downtown can turn regional visitors into local customers without relying on a large industrial campus.
The town publishes employment capacity and an economic strategy, but not a current verified ranking of individual employers.
Full employer profile →The town’s planned land uses are residential, recreation, open space, and public services; it has no commercial or industrial zoned land. Work inside Woodway is therefore limited mainly to home occupations and town services, while household livelihoods depend on employment elsewhere in the region.
Because the town has no commercial or industrial zoned land, it does not have a conventional local employer ranking.
Full employer profile →Town code prohibits commercial activity and permits only tightly limited home occupations. The plan explicitly points residents toward Bellevue, Kirkland, and Seattle for economic opportunity, making changes in those job centers and the routes to them more consequential than any local employer list.
The town prohibits commercial activity and therefore has no conventional local employer ranking.
Full employer profile →The plan documents job growth and Point Ruston’s dominant role, but does not publish a verified city-only employer ranking or tenant headcounts.
Full employer profile →The city names Wilcox Farms and Silvaseed as important local employers and the twice-yearly rodeo as a visitor draw. Its plan channels additional commercial development toward SR 507, so the question is whether growth strengthens this rural production-and-events economy or simply adds roadside activity for people commuting elsewhere.
Official sources document the townwide job count and its dependence on outside work, but do not publish a ranked employer list.
Full employer profile →Regional certification documents the employment target and downtown strategy, but no current organization-level employer ranking exists.
Full employer profile →The plan documents a workforce-access strategy and a modest employment target, but not a verified ranking of individual employers.
Full employer profile →The town has no commercial district, cannot expand its land area, and expects to restrict commercial development for the foreseeable future. Its economic geography is therefore almost entirely regional: jobs, shopping, and most services sit across the boundary while local tax revenue depends heavily on residential property and services delivered to homes.
Because the town has no commercial district, it does not have a conventional local employer ranking to publish.
Full employer profile →The town has no commercial development and does not issue business licenses, though tightly limited in-home work is allowed. Local employer rankings would therefore misdescribe the place: residents depend on Bellevue, Seattle, and other regional job centers while town government itself relies heavily on volunteers.
The town’s plan confirms that there is no commercial development and therefore no conventional local employer list.
Full employer profile →The official growth allocation documents only three additional jobs through 2044 and provides no organization-level employer ranking.
Full employer profile →The town publishes an economic-development work plan and current comprehensive plan, but no verified ranked employer list or company headcounts.
Full employer profile →Coverage is expanding city by city. Places without a defensible named-employer source remain out of this directory rather than being filled with guesses.
Choose any two cities. The bars show each city's position across the full region; farther right means more of that measure, not necessarily a better outcome.