At least 1,895 tech workers in Bellevue have lost or will lose their jobs in 2026, a tally that grew Wednesday when TikTok filed notice of 75 cuts at Lincoln Square North. The wave spans six employers and nearly every major office corridor in the city.

The layoffs land as King County's unemployment rate hit 4.9% in June, up from 4.5% a year earlier, according to KING5's reporting on Washington State Employment Security Department data published Aug. 20.

Seattle University associate professor of economics Nick Huntington-Klein called the contraction a "sustained issue" driven by three structural forces: companies replacing roles with AI, over-hiring during the COVID-19 pandemic, and higher taxes in Washington state.

"So, the question is: where's the bottom?" Huntington-Klein told KING5. "These are still huge companies. These are still companies that're going to need a lot of people. Are they shedding people right now and are they going to be done soon? Or is the slide going to continue? I don't think anyone really knows the answer to that."

The Bellevue toll

The biggest single hit came from Meta, which cut 699 positions at its Spring District office effective July 22, roughly 20% of its local workforce, according to GeekWire.

Bungie followed with 292 jobs eliminated at its downtown headquarters at 550 106th Ave. NE, effective July 9, after its Destiny franchise underperformed.

Amazon shed approximately 700 Bellevue positions in January as part of a 16,000-job national cut. Visa announced 70 cuts at the 929 Office Tower tied to an AI-driven restructuring, with separations beginning Oct. 1. Salesforce filed a WARN notice Aug. 5 covering 59 workers split between its Bellevue and Seattle offices, effective Oct. 5. And as we reported Aug. 19, TikTok's 75 cuts at 700 Bellevue Way NE take effect Oct. 19.

Those six employers account for at least 1,895 Bellevue-area job losses this year. That does not include Microsoft's 605 King County cuts filed in July, which did not specify a Bellevue breakdown.

AI as the common thread

The pattern is clear. Visa CEO Ryan McInerney framed his company's restructuring around artificial intelligence in a July 28 internal memo, telling employees the company is rebuilding product teams that once numbered 10 or more into "smaller and more nimble agentic squads of two to four." Huntington-Klein noted that even non-tech employers like Starbucks, which filed a WARN notice covering 224 Seattle-area roles on Aug. 20, are shedding similar corporate positions.

King County's 4.9% unemployment rate now exceeds the national rate of 4.1%. The gap widened even as national jobless claims fell to 206,000 last week.

The next round of Bellevue separations begins Oct. 1 at Visa, followed by Salesforce on Oct. 5 and TikTok on Oct. 19.