For laid-off tech workers, Seattle job market is no longer quite so friendly

Kaitlyn Lynch works at desk Thursday afternoon at Alaska Airlines’ The Hub in SeaTac, Washington. Given tech’s still outsized role in the Seattle-area economy, its recent downturn is likely to have broader, hard-to-ignore impacts. — The Seattle Times/TNS

Like many of the thousands of workers cut recently by Seattle-area tech firms, Eric, a former Amazon software engineer, recalls his layoff as a kind of one-two gut punch.

On top of the shock of losing a US$200,000-plus salary-and-stock package, the 30-something Seattleite found himself in a job market that was more crowded, and much less generous, than it had been even six months before.