‘Seawall’ — After long reliance on big tech, Seattle mayor orders pivot to cultivate mid-sized businesses

Faced with a Seattle economy vulnerable to shocks because she says it leans too heavily on a few corporate giants while squeezing out mid-sized firms, thin-margin industries, and working families through prohibitive living and operating costs, Mayor Katie Wilson has issued her latest executive order after a new Business Climate Assessment report (PDF) on the city’s economic conditions.

Wilson’s administration says the “Seawall” plan is to overhaul city permitting, deploy public assets for local business growth, and assemble a new economic task force as Seattle grapples with high living costs and heavy reliance on corporate giants.

“Businesses should be able to start here, grow here, and succeed here, and their employees should be able to build a life in the city where they work,” Wilson said in the announcement. “This assessment gives us an honest picture of where we are, and this Executive Order is how we start doing something about it. We are bringing Seattle’s business community in as genuine partners, and taking real steps to retain our strong foundation, diversify and grow our economic base, and make it simpler to do business in this city.”

Data released in the mayor’s announcement showed that companies with 100 or more workers drove 74.5% of Seattle’s net job growth between 2014 and 2023, well above the national rate of 68.5%. Mid-sized employers generated only 16.6% of local job growth, falling behind the national average of 22.7% and trailing cities like San Diego at 32.9%, Austin at 28.5%, Minneapolis at 28.4%, Portland at 25.5%, Boston at 23.7%, and Denver at 23.1%. Small businesses produced just 8.9% of local job gains.

The figures also showed that a Seattle couple with two young children needs 91.5% more income than a childless couple to cover basic household expenses. That family cost gap exceeds every peer city outside the Bay Area, outstripping Denver at 84.5%, Boston at 77.4%, Portland at 70.1%, Austin at 70%, and Atlanta at 50.2%.

Seawall:Building a Resilient Seattle Economy Findings

• Overreliance on large firms: Companies with 100+ workers drove 74.5% of net job growth (2014–2023), exceeding the 68.5% national rate.
• Weak mid-sized job growth: Mid-sized firms (20–99 employees) produced only 16.6% of job growth, lagging peer cities like San Diego (32.9%) and Austin (28.5%).
• Narrow tech pipeline: Four companies account for 25% of software-engineering demand, and the city added just 16 mid-sized tech firms from 2017 to 2023.
• Severe family cost burden: A couple with two children needs 91.5% more income to cover basics than a childless couple, the highest gap outside the Bay Area.
• Erosion of vulnerable sectors: High costs squeeze restaurants and childcare while shrinking manufacturing, where local jobs dropped 11.7% from 2014 to 2024.
• Need to retain and reconfigure: Seattle must preserve its primary tax-base employers while using existing assets to grow mid-sized firms and new industries.

Wilson is establishing a Resilient Seattle Economy Task Force led by Seattle Office of Economic Development director Beto Yarce to bring together business, labor, and community leaders for sector-specific roundtables to counter these pressures.

The order also cuts red tape in city permitting to make launching and expanding businesses easier, directs capital departments to open city assets to emerging enterprises, and launches a Seattle Strategic Initiatives Fund proposal to back major economic projects.

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