by Andrew Cheung on July 31, 2014
Explore this interactive data visualization to make your own discoveries. A few things we noticed:
- In the four counties of Central Puget Sound – King, Pierce, Snohomish and Kitsap – a handful of cities stood out as the biggest job gainers in percentage terms from 2000-2013. They were Bonney Lake, Mill Creek, Covington, Issaquah, and Marysville. All have seen significant new residential development in that period.
- The biggest job shedders in percentage terms over the same time span were Mountlake Terrace, Everett, Renton, Kenmore and SeaTac. Everett and Renton are home to major Boeing production facilities, SeaTac’s economy is closely hinged to that of Sea-Tac Airport.
- The PSRC data show construction job gains in percentage terms from 2000-2013 were greatest in Covington, Bonney Lake, Monroe, Arlington and Mukilteo. Manufacturing job growth was greatest in Bremerton – home to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, followed by Bonney Lake, Mukilteo, Issaquah and Monroe. Retail jobs grew most strongly in Bonney Lake, Covington, Mill Creek, Marysville, and Mukilteo. And gains in service jobs – which include a wide array of technology, professional and other jobs as explained in Tab D – were highest in Mill Creek, Bonney Lake, Edmonds, Maple Valley, and Issaquah.
- Jobs per resident for 2013 were highest in the big-box mecca of Tukwila, followed by Microsoft’s main campus town of Redmond, the growing business center of Bellevue, then Seattle, Lynnwood and Bremerton.
- In terms of raw number of jobs, Seattle in 2013 by far had more than any other city, but only 30.3 percent of the region’s total of 3.3 million. That compares to a 33 percent share of the region’s 3 million jobs in 2000.
Visualization by Andrew Cheung of Tableau software. Data discovery, viz testing, editing and writing by Matt Rosenberg, Washington Business Alliance.