How many job openings are there in Washington state?
Updates published monthly
About 137,000, as of January 2025. The number of job openings decreased by 33,000 from January 2024. A “job opening” is defined as a position open on the last business day of the month. To be considered “open,” a job must meet three conditions: (1) There’s work available for the position; (2) The job could start within 30 days; and (3) The employer is actively recruiting.
137K
job openings in Washington state (January 2025)
33K
fewer unfilled jobs in Washington state in January 2025 than in January 2024
The number of job openings is one measure of employer demand for workers and is a commonly referred-to economic indicator. An increase in the number of job openings often indicates the economy is growing, while a decline may indicate slowed growth.
The number of job openings in Washington state has declined over the last year.
Monthly job openings (seasonally adjusted) in Washington state, December 2000–January 2025
Following the Great Recession, monthly job openings in Washington state increased from 54,000 in January 2010 to 161,000 in February 2020. By April 2020, job openings had decreased to 82,000. Job openings in Washington state then experienced fluctuations during recovery from the COVID-19 recession. In January 2025, there were 137,000 job openings, down 19.4% from one year prior.
The job openings rate is another way to consider this data. It tells us what percentage of all jobs, filled and unfilled, were open during a given time period. This allows for better comparisons across time, industries, and places by adjusting for differences in the size of the working population.
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A lower share of jobs were open in Washington state than in the US overall in January.
Job openings rate (seasonally adjusted), January 2025
In January 2025, 3.6% of all jobs in Washington state were unfilled. This was 1.1 percentage points lower than the job openings rate US-wide.
Job openings also differ across states and regions for many reasons, including differing economies and dominating industries. Washington state's January job openings rate was lower than 49 states.
In January 2025, Washington state's job openings rate was lower than 49 states.
Seasonally adjusted job openings rate by state, January 2025
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Methodology
USAFacts standardizes data, in areas such as time and demographics, to make it easier to understand and compare.
The analysis was generated with the help of AI and reviewed by USAFacts for accuracy.
Page sources
USAFacts endeavors to share the most up-to-date information available. We sourced the data on this page directly from government agencies; however, the intervals at which agencies publish updated data vary.
US Bureau of Labor Statistics
Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey
