T-Mobile And Zillow Layoffs Impact Washington State Workers

So, if you think the tech layoffs in Washington state are starting to taper off, well, think again. Now we have two other companies laying off people. Zillow and T-Mobile. 

According to Seattletimes.com,
‘T-Mobile will lay off hundreds of Washington-based employees in April, according to a recent state filing.
The Bellevue-based wireless network operator plans to permanently eliminate the jobs of 393 workers at its headquarters and other offices, per a worker adjustment and retraining notification received Monday.’ 

And it’s not just Bellevue that’s being impacted. Bellingham, Bothell, Spokane Valley, 
E. Wenatchee, Woodinville, and Snoqualmie will also be affected. 

There are rumors floating around that T-Mobile is considering reductions in other states as well, but as of now, they’re just rumors. 

T-Mobile is not the only company cutting staff. Zillow is also reducing staff. 

According to seattletimes.com,
‘The Seattle-based real estate giant Zillow terminated around 200 employees last month for failing to meet performance expectations.’ 

I think I would put forward at this point that the Zillow layoff is not so much a tech layoff as a performance review layoff. Zillow says that these terminations were part of their annual review process. Zillow’s headquarters is located in Seattle, but the bulk of their employees, over 7000, for the most part work remotely and in different markets across the United States. 

Even though these jobs are being cut, Zillow is still considered a growing concern. They have over 200 job openings right now. 

The last time Zillow had a force reduction like this, it was in 2022 when they decided to develop the “Housing Super App”. They laid off 300 individuals in order to create more resources for that development. 

There is no way around it, right now it’s a really tough job market, not just in Seattle but in most of Washington state.