The shrinking factory floor, June 2026
economy
employment
Seattle-metro factories employed 166,700 people in June 2026, up 2.0% from a year earlier. The high-water mark was 246,000 in June 1998 — this region now has 79,800 fewer manufacturing jobs than it did then, a fall of 32%. Manufacturing here is mostly one company’s supply chain, which is why the series has vertical notches a normal industry series doesn’t: those are Boeing machinist strikes, visible because the data is not seasonally adjusted. It is the other half of tech versus aerospace.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, State & Area Employment (CES), Seattle–Tacoma–Bellevue MSA, manufacturing, not seasonally adjusted, via FRED SEAT653MFGN. Bench post — generated from the latest observation in the site database.