Tech-related job postings remain stuck well below pre-pandemic levels in Seattle, according to a new hiring trends report from Indeed.

The site uses a measure called the Indeed Job Postings Index, which treats Feb. 1, 2020 as the “normal” baseline of 100. Numbers below 100 mean fewer job postings than before the pandemic.

In Seattle, the index for Software Development was 32 as of Nov. 27, 2025 — meaning postings are about two-thirds lower than the pre-COVID benchmark. Data & Analytics is even lower at 29.

Those numbers haven’t moved much over the past two years. Software Development was 31 in late 2023 and Data & Analytics was 38, for example.

Nationally, tech job postings are almost a third lower compared to early 2020, according to Indeed.

Seattle is seeing a more concentrated pullback in tech-related hiring. It makes for an unfamiliar economic environment in the Emerald City, which has seen its tech industry surge for much of the past decade, including a hiring spree early in the pandemic.

A report from CBRE in 2021 showed that the Seattle region added more than 48,000 tech jobs from 2016 to 2020, an increase of more than 35% — growing at a faster rate than any other large U.S. tech market for that time period. Amazon was growing exponentially, Microsoft had a massive revival, and the startup scene was producing multiple billion-dollar companies.

It’s a different climate now, just as the artificial intelligence era gets going amid broader macroeconomic uncertainty.

Microsoft and Amazon had substantial layoffs this year, though both are still hiring in select areas as they invest heavily in AI infrastructure. Some startups, once so-called “unicorns,” have also shed staff due to financial trouble.

The tech slowdown in Seattle got the national spotlight in September, when The Wall Street Journal detailed the broader fallout from widespread layoffs, including decreased retail spending in tech-heavy districts and record-high office vacancies.

The latest trends may help explain why some job seekers, including longtime leaders, are having trouble landing tech gigs in Seattle.

The tech industry accounts for a whopping 30% of the economy in the Seattle region, according to a report from CompTIA. That ranks second in the U.S. behind San Jose. Tech also accounts for more than 12% of the overall workforce in the Seattle area.

Workers in the “computer and mathematicals” occupation category in the Seattle area had the highest median earnings in 2024 by a wide margin ($163,609), according to the Seattle Times.

Other hiring trends in Seattle and nationally

As of late 2025, only seven of 45 sectors in the Seattle area were above 100, per the Indeed Job Postings Index — and all of them were in healthcare. Two years earlier, 22 sectors were still above 100, showing a much broader economy with stronger hiring demand. Overall, Seattle had a 35% decline in job postings from February 2020 to October 2025, Axios reported.

The weakest Seattle sectors right now include Data & Analytics, Software Development, Project Management, Human Resources, and Media and Communications.

Some of the largest declines over the past two years came in non-tech areas such as Driving, Pharmacy, Cleaning and Sanitation, Civil Engineering, and Childcare — though Indeed notes that Pharmacy and Civil Engineering still remain relatively high compared with pre-pandemic levels.

Indeed said in nearly every state, the highest job posting levels are found in smaller and mid-sized regions, rather than big cities.

“Employment in many of the largest MSAs tends to be skewed towards tech, business, and professional services, which are seeing lower levels of job postings,” the company wrote in a blog post. “Smaller MSAs, however, tend to have heavier employment shares in sectors, including manufacturing, leisure and hospitality, and healthcare, which generally have job postings that remain near or higher than pre-COVID norms.”

Indeed said the most probable outcome for next year’s labor market is an extension of the current “low-hire, low-fire” environment. It noted that large coastal metro areas with slower population growth and more exposure to tech and professional services “are likely to face tougher conditions.”