Metro Economic Outlook: Seattle A successful technology industry has brought prosperity to much of the Seattle region, but local officials are trying to branch out in order to further diversify the economy. The tech boom is the driver of our growth, but we re also working very intentionally on strengthening and growing the aerospace and maritime and logistics industries, said Suzanne Estey, president and CEO of the Economic Development Council of Seattle and King County, a public/private partnership that promotes business growth. Those are critical areas for middle income jobs. We still have an undercurrent of inequality and a shrinking middle class, much like you re seeing across the country right now. Unemployment rate 12 10 8 6 5 4.6 4 2 0 Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics (April 2016) SEATTLE METRO: : VITAL STATS Total working age population: 2,326,415 out of a total population of 3,671,478 Number of households: 1,406,259 Consumer price index: 253.815 (goods and services that cost $100 in 1982-1984 cost $253.82 in April 2016) Percentage of local residents with bachelor s degrees: 24.9 With graduate or professional degrees: 14.5 Workers in STEM industries: 51.5 per 1,000 residents Sources: Census Bureau (2014), Bureau of Labor Statistics (April 2016), American Institute for Economic Research (2015) The Seattle metro area spans three counties in northwestern Washington. In Seattle s home of King County alone, there are nearly 500 companies and more than 45,000 employees in the aerospace sector. Boeing, the largest such employer, has seen heightened global demand for its 737 MAX airplane, and the company is on pace to construct 52 planes per month at its local plant in Renton by 2018. Boeing s employment ebbs and flows, but we re still quite bullish on the strength of the aerospace sector, Estey said. Aside from Redmond-based Microsoft, some of the region s other notable Fortune 500 interests include retailers Amazon.com, Nordstrom and Starbucks, all three of which are headquartered in Seattle. Amazon in particular is in high growth mode. The company had about 500,000 square feet of office Unemployment and most CPI data updated monthly. Other data updated once annually as it becomes available.
space in the region in 2010, but expects to have nearly 10 million square feet of space by 2019. Educational and medical centers provide one out of every six jobs in the City of Seattle, according to a report by the city s downtown business association. Those institutions provide nearly $5 billion annually in salaries and benefits to the city s labor force. Construction Mining and logging Manufacturing Trade, transportation and utilities Information Financial activities Professional and business services Education and health services Leisure and hospitality Other services Government Total nonfarm 101.3 98.2 69.2 185.6 183.3 Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics (January 2016) Despite the recent success which included a jobless rate below 5 percent in late 2015 Estey said there are continued efforts to shore up the skills of the region s workers. Air Washington, a program that involved 11 community colleges several of which are located in the Seattle region was supported by a $20 million federal grant and was completed in 2015. It provided 246,526, 11% 209,661, 9% Working age categories 246,333, 11% 587,091, 25% Labor force makeup 1 103.5 363.4 266.6 257.8 272.5 1902.4 0 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 Number in thousands training for more than 2,600 workers in advanced manufacturing, composites, electronics and avionics, aircraft assembly, and aircraft maintenance. With the help of $40 million in support from Microsoft, the University of Washington also announced a partnership in 2015 with Tsinghua University in China. Dubbed the Global Innovation Exchange and based in Seattle, an institute will open in the fall of 2016 and will allow students, faculty and professionals to collaborate on technology projects. In 2017, the institute will launch a master s degree 20 to 24 program in technology innovation, 25 to 34 and will add more programs in 35 to 44 subsequent years. 515,285, 22% 521,519, 22% 45 to 54 55 to 59 60 to 64 Despite these great things that are happening, many of our tech companies are having to import talent from all over the world, Estey said. We need to do more. We re still not meeting the demand. Source: Census Bureau (2014) 2
Employee Benefits Data 25% 2 15% 1 5% Employers offering consumer-driven health plans 24% 17% Employers in the Seattle metro area are less likely to offer consumer-driven health plans compared with the national level, by a margin of 7 percent. 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Employers offering domestic partner benefits 5 72% They are substantially more likely to offer domestic partner benefits, by a 22 percent margin above the national level. Source: SHRM Health Care Benchmarking Database (2015) Retirement Employee 401(k) participation rate 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 62% 73% The rate of 401(k) participation in the Seattle metro area s workforce is moderately higher than the national level, by a margin of 11 percent. 1 Source: SHRM Retirement & Welfare Benefits Database (2013) 3
Income and Turnover Data Overall turnover rate 2 15% 1 18% 16% Turnover in the Seattle metro area s workforce is slightly lower than the national rate, by a margin of 2 percent. 5% Source: SHRM Human Capital Benchmarking Database (2015) Median household income $80,000 $70,000 $60,000 $50,000 $40,000 $30,000 $20,000 $53,657 $71,273 Median household income in the Seattle metro area is much higher than the national level, by more than $17,000 annually. $10,000 $0 Source: Census Bureau (2014) Per capita income $40,000 $35,000 $30,000 $25,000 $20,000 $15,000 $28,889 $36,854 Per capita income in the Seattle metro region is also higher than the national level, by nearly $8,000 annually. $10,000 $5,000 $0 Source: Census Bureau (2014) 4
Top Management Salaries Data Median salaries, top management *Top legal executive **Chief information officer *Top HR executive $191,500 $310,100 $286,800 $270,000 $187,000 $254,900 Median salaries for top management positions in the Seattle metro area are generally lower than national levels. ***Chief financial officer $268,700 $350,400 ***Chief executive officer $381,800 $623,200 $0 $200,000 $400,000 $600,000 $800,000 *Pacific Northwest states subregion **West Coast region ***Washington state Source: Towers Watson Data Services 2015 Survey Report on Top Management Compensation Project lead: Joseph Coombs, Senior Analyst, Workforce Trends, SHRM Project contributors: Alexander Alonso, Ph.D., SHRM-SCP, VP of Research; Jennifer Schramm, M. Phil., SHRM-SCP, Manager, Workforce Trends External contributors: Suzanne Estey, Economic Development Council of Seattle and King County Copy editing: Katya Scanlan, copy editor This report is published by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). All content is for informational purposes only and is not to be construed as a guaranteed outcome. SHRM cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions or any liability resulting from the use or misuse of any such information. 2016 Society for Human Resource Management. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. These materials and the data contained within them are copyrighted by SHRM, another copyright holder (where noted), or are government-owned. SHRM hereby grants permission for users to copy and use these materials and the data contained within them only if proper attribution is given to SHRM (or the noted copyright holder) as the source of the material. For more information, please contact: SHRM Research Department SHRM Human Capital Database 1800 Duke Street, Alexandria, VA 22314, USA www.shrm.org/benchmarks Phone: (703) 548-3440 Fax: (703) 535-6432 SHRM Compensation Data Center Email: SHRMResearch@shrm.org www.shrm.org/research/shrmcompensationdataservice Web: www.shrm.org/research 5