LinkedIn recently released their monthly Workforce Report, which outlines national and local employment trends using data obtained by LinkedIn users. Here I outline key trends from Seattle’s report. In November 2018, hiring was 1.2 percent higher than it was at this same time last year, though seasonal adjustments revealed numbers slightly (0.2 percent) lower in November than October.
Read MoreAfter a few years of staggering rent increases, single-family home rental prices in Seattle are leveling off, which Seattle Times predicts could bring more and more landlords to decide to list their homes for sale and benefit potential homebuyers (and renters). As the article outlines, approximately 1 in 6 single-family homes in the greater Seattle region is currently rented, and the last couple of years have seen dramatic decreases in what was once a burgeoning market for landlords. While “rents in local single-family homes rose a paltry 0.4 percent in February from a year ago,” landlords saw 4% increases last year, and “just two years ago, rents were soaring as much as 9 percent annually.”
Read MoreAs Mike Rosenberg of Seattle Times reports, “it’s not just housing prices: Seattle is not the bargain it used to be for companies, either.” Though the Emerald City was historically a bargain compared to other larger cities, “the city’s recent boom driven by Amazon and other tech companies has propelled Seattle up the ranks of the nation’s most expensive places to rent an office, passing Chicago and Los Angeles just in the last three years.” During the three year period, Seattle office rents increased a staggering 31 percent, “about 2 ½ times faster than the national average.”
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