Amazon plans for 15K employees in Bellevue

SEATTLE — Amazon expects to have at least 15,000 employees in Bellevue in the next few years as the company expands from its Seattle headquarters to tap a larger labor pool.

The Seattle Times reports that would be more than a sevenfold increase from now and total about as many people as worked at Bellevue’s top three employers combined at the end of 2018.

Amazon specified the employment plan in a corporate blog post Thursday.

The online retail giant is not reducing its Seattle workforce, now more than 50,000 people. Amazon has more than 11,000 Seattle-specific job openings and continues to add space in Seattle.

In Bellevue, the company already has 2,000 workers and nearly 700 job openings and continues to hire.

Microsoft was Bellevue’s largest employer with 6,300 people, according to a city survey last updated at the end of 2018. T-Mobile was second with 5,100. Expedia, with 3,900, was third, though it has since moved to Seattle, and Amazon is preparing to move employees into Expedia’s former headquarters in Bellevue this fall. The city is updating its estimates now and already expects a net increase of about 18,000 jobs, including from Amazon, in the downtown by 2025. There are about 52,000 currently working in Bellevue’s core.