Seattle-area offices staying empty as job losses outpace return

SEATTLE — Since the pandemic, the optimistic take on the battered office market around Seattle has been pretty straightforward: vacancies will fade once employers get those remote workers back in.

But as vacancies persist despite widespread return-to-office mandates — more than a third of downtown Seattle offices are still empty — it’s clear the market faces another barrier: one of its main drivers is running in reverse.

Since late 2022, hiring has slowed or even gone negative in many of the job categories, such as software programming, that helped fill Seattle area offices before COVID-19.

While overall employment in the Seattle area is up by a modest 0.5% since 2022, it’s down by 9% in the “information” sector, which includes many programming jobs, and by 12% in jobs related to comput