Expeditors International eliminated 230 technology jobs across the Seattle region on Monday, June 8, breaking a no-layoff tradition the logistics company had maintained since its 1979 founding.

The cuts add to a wave of tech job losses that has pushed Seattle-area unemployment to 5.5%.

The affected workers are software developers, QA testers, project managers, and business analysts spread across offices in Seattle, Bellevue, Lynnwood, Federal Way, and Airway Heights, according to a WARN notice filed with the Washington State Employment Security Department. Separations begin Saturday, August 8.

Under co-founder Peter J. Rose, who served as CEO from 1988 to 2013, Expeditors held its no-layoff line through the 2008-09 financial crisis, the pandemic, and the 2022-23 tech industry purge. As recently as January, the company's corporate history page credited its no-layoff policy for making 2010 its best year. By May, GeekWire found the page had been quietly edited to read "our short-term no layoff policy."

CEO Daniel Wall, who started at Expeditors in 1987 as a messenger and rose through the ranks over nearly four decades, took over in April 2025. The tech organization is now run by CIO Courtney Hawkins, who joined in 2024 after roles at Starbucks, Nike, Nordstrom, and Zulily.

Expeditors did not respond to GeekWire's requests for comment.

The 230 positions represent about 15% of Expeditors' 1,500-person global tech workforce. The company posted $11.07 billion in revenue and $810 million in profit in 2025. Its Q1 2026 earnings, released May 5, showed revenue up 4% to $2.8 billion and net earnings up 13% to $230 million.

In that same release, CFO David Hackett said the company had made "essential investments in technology, including artificial intelligence" in 2025 and was achieving productivity gains. The layoffs came five weeks later.

Between Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft, more than 9,700 Seattle-area tech workers have lost jobs since May 2025, according to the Seattle Times. Meta alone cut 1,395 Washington positions with separations effective July 22. Oracle eliminated 491 jobs, mostly downtown. T-Mobile cut 393 statewide.

The Seattle metro unemployment rate hit 5.5% in April, up from 4.4% a year earlier, according to the Washington Employment Security Department. State chief labor economist Anneliese Vance-Sherman said the labor market has been losing momentum for the past couple of years, with that trend continuing into 2026.

Weekday worker foot traffic in downtown Seattle sat at just 60% of 2019 levels in April and fell 6% year-over-year, according to the Downtown Seattle Association, which attributed the decline partly to continued job losses.

Expeditors' 230 affected workers remain on payroll through August 8. More than 11,000 Washington tech workers lost jobs between May 2025 and April 2026, according to Revelio Labs research reported by KUOW, making the state second only to California in tech layoffs over that period.