Recently, Seattle’s tech workforce has been hit by wave after wave of layoffs. Some company execs say it’s AI’s fault. KUOW’s Monica Nickelsburg joins Kimberly on today’s show to share what she’s hearing from tech workers. And, we’ll get into another side of the AI boom: the push to build more data centers and the pushback from locals. Plus, a round of Seattle trivia! Here’s everything we talked about today: &quot;Booming&quot; from KUOW Why Seattle tech companies are still laying off workers from The Seattle Times &quot;From coder to shuttle driver: Where Seattle&#x27;s laid off tech workforce is now&quot; from KUOW &quot;A small town in Central Washington is Microsoft&#x27;s answer to the data center backlash&quot; from KUOW &quot;What produce prompted the creation of the Market?&quot; from the Pike Place Market Foundation &quot;Seattle doesn&#x27;t have many unicorns. Does it matter?&quot; From GeekWire &quot;Scents from a Mall: The Sticky, Untold Story of Cinnabon&quot; from Seattle Met &quot;Seattle area expected to generate $845 million from FIFA World Cup&quot; from Fox 13 Seattle We love hearing from you. Leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART or email makemesmart@marketplace.org.

Seattle's tech industry blues 

Marketplace All-in-One

[SPEAKER_A] Hello everyone, I'm Kimberly Adams. Welcome back to Make Me Smart, where none of us is as smart as all of us. Thank you to everyone, whether you're joining us on the YouTube livestream or listening to this as a podcast later on. This is Economics on Tap, our weekly happy hour episode. Thank you everyone for joining in. Now, yesterday on the show, we talked with Anthropic's head of economics about what the AI boom could mean for the economy and the labor market more broadly. And today, we're going to zoom in and talk about where the kind of impetus of this all came from. We're going to talk about what it looks like in Seattle and what's going on more broadly in the tech sector there. So joining me today is Monica Nickelsburg. She covers AI and the economy for KUOW in Seattle and co-hosts the economics podcast "Booming." Welcome to the show, Monica.

[SPEAKER_B] I'm so glad to be here.

[SPEAKER_A] So glad to have you here. It's nice to see you again. I know we've met before. But before we get to the news and what you've been covering there in Seattle, let's talk drinks. What did you bring?

[SPEAKER_B] Okay, so I brought a Seattle IPA. It's from Fremont Brewing. We're very proud of our craft beer scene here. Should I go ahead and open it?

[SPEAKER_A] Oh yeah, go for it. I'm going to shake my canned drink while we're at it.

[SPEAKER_B] It's called the Lush IPA and it's delicious. It's very drinkable, especially if they take a little getting used to. I used to think they were so strong and bitter when I moved here almost 15 years ago, but now everything else doesn't taste quite right.

Seattle's tech industry blues

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.

Seattle's tech industry blues

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast, not the earnings call.

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.