Economy

Seattle is the urban center of a four-county metropolitan region with 3.5 million people and 1.7 million jobs. The city's largest employer is the University of Washington, with 28,000 faculty and staff, an operating budget of $3.4 billion and an annual research budget of $990 million (see 2006 Annual Report. The University plays a key role in many economic sectors such as healthcare, biotechnology, information technology, science and research.

Seattle's healthcare cluster (hospitals, healthcare products and services, training and research) accounts for 96,000 jobs and contributes $10 billion annually to the local economy (see Key Industries at http://www.seattle.gov/economicdevelopment/). The biotechnology and medical device sector, ranked 5th in the US by industry concentration, consists of 250 firms and non-profit research organizations throughout the Seattle/Washington State region (see http://www.wabio.com/). Seattle's strong position in healthcare, biotechnology and information technology has led to new collaborative developments in bioinformatics (using databases and algorithms to enhance biological research) and health informatics (using computer technologies for the collection, storage, communication and optimal use of health related data).

Seattle's healthcare and biotechnology sectors have benefited from grants from the Seattle-based Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has $29.1 billion in net assets (not including additional assets promised recently by Warren Buffet). Foundation funding helped the University of Washington co-locate the Departments of Genome Sciences and Bioengineering in a new facility and create a new Department of Global Health (jointly run by the Schools of Public Health and Medicine). The South Lake Union neighborhood near the University has become a biotech hub thanks to private investment by Vulcan, the creation of a $15 million biotech incubator and proximity to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, the Institute for Systems Biology, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (Seattle office), Amgen's Helix Campus on Elliot Bay, the Allen Institute for Brain Science, the Pacific Northwest Research Institute, the Infectious Disease Research Institute, PATH (Program for Appropriate Technology in Health), the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute and Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason.

Aerospace has long been a key industry in the Seattle region, thanks to the Boeing Company. Boeing employs 68,993 people in the Seattle/Washington State area, including 46,374 employees in Boeing Commercial Airplanes, 8,382 in Integrated Defense Systems, 7,527 in Engineering, Operations & Technology (including Phantom Works), 5,652 in Shared Services Group, and 927 in Corporate (figures for March 1, 2007). In addition, Boeing works with 2,957 suppliers/venders in the Seattle/Washington State and makes charitable contributions of approximately $15 million (figures for June, 2006). Boeing's new 787 airplanes will be assembled in Everett, a city north of Seattle.

The information technology sector in the Seattle/Washington State region includes about 6,000 companies, employs 68,000 people, accounts for $10 billion in annual wages and generates $25 billion in annual revenues (see industry overview at http://www.wsa.org). As of July, 2006, Microsoft employed 33,223 people in the greater Seattle area and 71,172 people worldwide. Microsoft has an annual research/development budget of $7 billion with research labs in Redmond (a city east of Seattle), Silicon Valley, Cambridge, Bangalore and Beijing.

The Seattle area is home to leading-edge companies in a number of additional sectors. The environmental industry consists of about 400 companies employing 16,000 people in fields such as alternative energy and environmental engineering. The Arts as an economic sector ranks 5th among American cities and includes 3,578 arts-related businesses employing 18,493 people (according to a 2007 Creative Industries Report by Americans for the Arts). The arts sector includes a growing film and video industry as well as a music industry that in 2004 generated labor income of $266 million, total sales of $1.3 billion and employment of 10,700 jobs in 3,000 music-related businesses. Seattle is the center of a thriving gourmet coffee industry (Seattle-based Starbucks has more than 13,000 retail locations worldwide); a dynamic recreation equipment sector (thanks to organizations such as the Mountaineers and companies such as K2 Sports, REI, Filson and MSR); and the nation's largest marine and fisheries sector (fisheries exports from Washington State exceed the total of all other US states combined based on both value and weight). Other important sectors are wood products, transportation equipment, food products and apparel design.

For further information about Seattle industry sectors, see http://www.seattle.gov/economicdevelopment/ and http://www.seattletradealliance.com.

Total Employment and Projections

Number of full-time and part-time positions (not including resource or construction)

Source: Puget Sound Regional Council
*King, Snohomish, Pierce and Kitsap Counties

US Military

The Defense Department is one of the largest employers in the Puget Sound region. Major facilities include Fort Lewis Army Base, the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Bangor Naval Submarine Base, McChord Air Force Base and Naval Station Everett.

Employment by Economic Sector, 2006

Greater Seattle Area: King, Kitsap, Pierce and Snohomish Counties

Source: December 2006 Puget Sound Economic Forecaster