Where Washington layoffs actually happen

King County is in a category of its own

King County has 649 WARN notices covering 102,759 reported workers. That is 43 percent of every filing in the archive and 43 percent of all reported workers, from a single county.

The next four counties combined come to 288 notices. King has more than twice as many on its own. If you follow Washington layoff news and it feels like everything happens in Seattle, the filings back that up.

• Washington labor market information

Notice counts and worker counts rank differently

Pierce County files more notices than Snohomish, 97 against 79. But Snohomish reports more affected workers, 8,864 against 8,350. Snohomish filings are simply bigger on average: 112 workers per notice versus 86 in Pierce.

Yakima County makes the point more sharply. It sits outside the top five on notice count with 44 filings, yet reports 11,960 workers, more than Pierce and Snohomish put together. Agriculture and food processing file fewer notices, but the ones they file are large.

• BLS occupational employment FAQ

The biggest single filings in each county

King County's largest is RaterLabs at 3,657 workers in February 2024, followed by Washington Mutual at 3,400 back in November 2008. Pierce County's largest is WestRock at 408. Snohomish tops out at Kimberly-Clark with 760 in 2011.

Spokane's largest filing is the YMCA of the Inland Northwest at 509 in March 2020, and Clark County's is American Queen Steamboat at 250 in July 2020. The gap between King County's biggest filings and everyone else's is roughly an order of magnitude.

• Washington ESD WARN requirements

Recent activity is even more concentrated

Since the start of 2025, King County recorded 92 notices covering 15,482 workers. Pierce recorded 14. Snohomish recorded 10. Spokane recorded 3, and Clark recorded 4.

So King County's share of recent filings is running higher than its long-run share. Whether that reflects where jobs are being cut or simply where the large employers who must file are located is not something these records can settle.

• Check current labor market data

Read county totals carefully

Three hundred and four notices in this archive carry no county at all, so every county total here is a floor rather than a complete count. Some of those uncounted filings are large.

A county is also recorded as a single value even when an employer operates in several places. A company headquartered in King County that closes a site elsewhere may still appear under King.

And a notice is an announcement. Counting workers across filings tells you what was announced, not how many people ultimately lost a job.

• Check the official ESD WARN record