Private establishments and private jobs, Washington and U.S.

What this dataset measures

Built to check claims that Washington is losing its businesses or big employers. It brings together the direct measures of that claim: company filings for headquarters, federal counts of very large worksites and of all private businesses, Census counts of new business filings, and the state's layoff-notice database, with the 2025 change in the state's layoff-notice law marked.

Geography

Washington, United States

Unit of observation

Varies by table: company, year, quarter, or layoff notice

Update cadence

One-time release; may be revised as new quarterly data arrive

Curator

FactHub Research Team

Curated data tables

Private establishments and private jobs, Washington and U.S.

QCEW private-sector establishment counts and employment.

Unit of observation: Year and basis

establishments-jobs.csv text/csv · 889 bytes

All 15 rows 6 columns Download the file

All 15 rows

year	basis	waEstablishments establishments	usEstablishments establishments	waPrivateJobs jobs	usPrivateJobs jobs
2019	annual average	248576	9932347	2871805	126358743
2020	annual average	263926	10185275	2709844	117940012
2021	annual average	267872	10606413	2805472	122716652
2022	annual average	252068	11215668	2955687	128718060
2023	annual average	224177	11560938	3003089	131289681
2024	annual average	232529	11750888	3003097	132569771
2025	annual average	237186	11806967	3005728	133160274
2019	first quarter (jobs: March)	247316	9805606	—	—
2020	first quarter (jobs: March)	252366	10052880	—	—
2021	first quarter (jobs: March)	259560	10353056	—	—
2022	first quarter (jobs: March)	277196	10970258	—	—
2023	first quarter (jobs: March)	235822	11462021	—	—
2024	first quarter (jobs: March)	223340	11602004	—	—
2025	first quarter (jobs: March)	236610	11657676	2965253	131752512
2026	first quarter (jobs: March)	235371	12075890	2960411	132003896

6 field definitions

Field	Type	Meaning	Units	Value type
year	integer	Year.	—	observed
basis	string	Annual average, or first quarter (jobs in March).	—	observed
waEstablishments	integer	Washington private establishments.	establishments	observed
usEstablishments	integer	U.S. private establishments.	establishments	observed
waPrivateJobs	integer	Washington private employment. Empty for first-quarter rows before 2025, which were not pulled.	jobs	observed
usPrivateJobs	integer	U.S. private employment. Empty for first-quarter rows before 2025, which were not pulled.	jobs	observed

Supporting files

Source snapshots, manifests, quality reports, documentation, and other materials used to produce or review this release.

• farm-employer-names.txt Documentation · text/plain · 1 KB (1,040 bytes)

  The employer names flagged as farms or orchards in the layoff notices.

• build.js Transformation manifest · text/javascript · 11.7 KB (11,994 bytes)

  Node.js script that builds every table and saved analysis from the input files.

• official-series.json Source manifest · application/json · 5.6 KB (5,715 bytes)

  The official figures used as inputs (BLS QCEW, Census Business Formation Statistics, population, ESD workbook), with series IDs.

• sec-submissions.json Source manifest · application/json · 3.3 KB (3,400 bytes)

  The fields read from the SEC EDGAR submissions API for each company.

• analyses.json Documentation · application/json · 10.9 KB (11,209 bytes)

  Every saved-analysis result, as written by build.js.

Sources

1. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, EDGAR submissions API Business address and latest annual report (Form 10-K) for each company, from https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK##########.json

   Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Permitted

   Reliability: Government. Addresses are what each company reports to the SEC on its filings. The SEC has no stake in where companies locate.

2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, QCEW establishment size data First-quarter counts of private worksites with 1,000 or more employees and their March employment, 2019-2026 (same file pattern for each year)

   Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Permitted

   Reliability: Government. Built from unemployment-insurance tax reports that nearly all employers file each quarter. Washington's data come from the state Employment Security Department.

3. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, QCEW series ENU5300020510, ENUUS00020510, ENU5300010510, ENUUS00010510 Private-sector establishment counts and employment, Washington and U.S.

   Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Permitted

   Reliability: Government. Same unemployment-insurance records as the size data. Establishment counts depend on how employers' reporting units are recorded.

4. Washington Employment Security Department, WARN layoff and closure database Every layoff and closure notice in the database, June 2018 to November 2, 2026

   Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public record (Washington state government). Permitted

   Reliability: Government. Notices are filed by employers under the federal WARN Act and, from July 27, 2025, Washington's own notice law. ESD lists them by the date it receives them. The first 15 rows of the copy matched the live table on November 3, 2026.

5. Washington State Legislature, RCW 49.45.010 Definitions of covered employer and mass layoff in Washington's notice law (2025 c 277)

   Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public record (Washington state government). Permitted

   Reliability: Government. Official statute text from the Code Reviser.

6. Washington Employment Security Department Date the state notice law took effect

   Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public record (Washington state government). Permitted

   Reliability: Government. The agency that administers the notice law and keeps the database.

7. 29 U.S. Code 2101 (Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School) Federal WARN Act definitions of employer and mass layoff

   Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public domain statute text. Permitted

   Reliability: Academic. Cornell's copy of the U.S. Code text.

8. Census Bureau Business Formation Statistics via FRED, BAHBATOTALNSAWA Monthly high-propensity business applications, Washington, not seasonally adjusted

   Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Permitted

   Reliability: Government. Census counts applications for federal employer ID numbers and flags those likely to become employers. FRED republishes the series unchanged.

9. Census Bureau Business Formation Statistics via FRED, BAHBATOTALNSAUS Monthly high-propensity business applications, United States, not seasonally adjusted

   Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Permitted

   Reliability: Government. Same Census program as the Washington series.

10. FRED, resident population WAPOP (Census) and B230RC0A052NBEA (BEA) Annual population of Washington and the U.S. (U.S. series https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/B230RC0A052NBEA), used for per-person rates

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Permitted

    Reliability: Government. Census Bureau and Bureau of Economic Analysis population estimates.

11. Washington Employment Security Department, Monthly Employment Report charts workbook, September 2026 Over-the-year job change by industry, September 2025 to September 2026 (sheet 'Industry employment OTY, nsa', updated October 14, 2026)

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public record (Washington state government). Permitted

    Reliability: Government. ESD's monthly survey-based estimates (Current Employment Statistics), revised when benchmarked to tax records.

12. Deseret News Brian Heywood's statement on losing businesses

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. All rights reserved (quoted under fair use). Link only; short quotation

    Reliability: News report. News report by Emily Walker quoting Heywood directly.

13. Washington Policy Center Commentary claiming a business exodus, May 28, 2026

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. All rights reserved (quoted under fair use). Link only; short quotation

    Reliability: Advocacy group. Has a stake in this finding. A Washington think tank that argues for lower taxes and less regulation. The piece is by its director of small business policy.

14. InvestmentNews Fisher Investments headquarters move, March 27, 2023

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. All rights reserved. Link only

    Reliability: News report. Trade news report.

15. Southern Business & Development Avalara headquarters now Durham, June 24, 2024

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. All rights reserved. Link only

    Reliability: News report. Economic-development trade publication quoting the company.

16. KIRO 7 Payscale headquarters change, December 8, 2025

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. All rights reserved. Link only

    Reliability: News report. Local TV news report.

17. Trade & Industry Development Starbucks Nashville office, April 22, 2026

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. All rights reserved. Link only

    Reliability: News report. Economic-development trade publication reporting the Tennessee announcement.

18. KIRO 7 Columbia Bank executive office in Arizona, October 2026

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. All rights reserved. Link only

    Reliability: News report. Local TV news report summarizing the Puget Sound Business Journal.

Limitations and reproducibility

Reproducible: build.js recomputes every table and saved analysis from three input files: sec-submissions.json (SEC EDGAR submissions API), official-series.json (BLS QCEW, Census Business Formation Statistics via FRED, population, and the ESD September 2026 workbook, copied from the sources listed) and warn-notices.csv (ESD WARN database). Run node build.js. The input numbers can be re-pulled from the source URLs.

• Headquarters are checked for 14 large Washington-based public companies, chosen as the best-known large employers; it is not every company ever based in Washington. Private companies other than Nordstrom are not covered.
• The 1,000-plus worker count is of worksites (establishments), not companies. One company can run several such sites, and a company can be headquartered elsewhere. Counts are for the first quarter of each year.
• Washington's business counts in the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) fell sharply between 2022 and 2023 and swing more than the U.S. series, which points to changes in how employers' accounts are recorded. Long comparisons across 2022-23 are unreliable; the first-quarter 2026 figures are preliminary.
• Layoff notices are not comparable before and after July 27, 2025, when Washington's own notice law took effect. It covers employers with 50 or more workers and counts layoffs statewide, where the federal law covers employers with 100 or more and counts by site. Farm and orchard notices appear almost only after that date.
• Layoff notices show planned layoffs at Washington sites. They do not show relocations, actual separations, or rehiring, and seasonal farm notices recur each year.
• Farm and orchard notices are flagged by employer name (farm-employer-names.txt). Farm labor contractors and growers with generic names, such as Borton & Sons, are counted as other employers, so the farm share is a lower bound.
• New business filings (high-propensity business applications) are applications likely to become employers, not businesses actually opened.