224 more Starbucks jobs gone from Seattle as company exodus continues, Nashville hub grows

Starbucks filed a new Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notice with Washington state Thursday about employees working at its headquarters at 2401 Utah Ave. S. in the Emerald City.

Of the 224 employees, approximately 104 are losing their jobs through organizational changes, while another 120 were offered the opportunity to transfer to Starbucks’ growing Nashville operation and declined to relocate.

The latest filing adds another chapter to what has become a steady migration of Starbucks corporate jobs away from the Seattle area. Starbucks announced in April that it would invest $100 million in a new Nashville corporate office and locate as many as 2,000 support jobs over the next five years. The company claims Seattle will remain its global and North American headquarters but acknowledged that some existing Seattle teams would move south.

The Nashville operation is expected to occupy roughly 250,000 square feet downtown and represents one of the largest corporate economic-development projects in the city's history.

In May, Starbucks disclosed another 252 positions tied administratively to its Seattle Support Center would be eliminated as part of its corporate restructuring. That followed a separate reduction of 61 Seattle technology positions. The May layoffs included managers, directors, analysts and nine vice presidents, with Starbucks saying some operations or positions would be relocated or contracted out.

Those cuts followed a much larger downsizing in 2025. Starbucks eliminated nearly 2,000 corporate positions globally, with more than 900 positions reportedly eliminated in Seattle and Kent during an October restructuring. At the same time, Starbucks is preparing to put thousands of jobs in Tennessee.

Starbucks has repeatedly insisted that Seattle will remain its headquarters and that the majority of its support employees continue to be based there. But its own announcements make clear that Nashville is taking on increasingly important corporate functions. Starbucks says the Tennessee office will include technology and other support operations, with some existing Seattle teams moving there. The company has cited Nashville's growing talent pool, proximity to suppliers and location closer to the parts of the country where Starbucks expects much of its future store growth.

The affected jobs stretch across Starbucks' corporate operation and include managers, engineers, application developers, real estate employees, store designers, systems analysts, software quality assurance workers, technical product managers and project managers.

The first separations are scheduled for Oct. 19, with all 224 expected to be completed by Nov. 1. The terminations are permanent.

Starbucks' shift comes as Washington policymakers confront growing concerns about the loss of high-paying jobs, businesses and wealthy taxpayers. Starbucks founder Howard Schultz announced his move to Florida the same day Washington lawmakers passed legislation establishing a 9.9 percent tax on income above $1 million, while Starbucks was simultaneously moving corporate functions toward Nashville.

The company is targeting $2 billion in cost reductions by the end of fiscal 2028, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The corporate job losses have been accompanied by a significant contraction of Starbucks' retail footprint in its home state. In September 2025, Starbucks launched a sweeping review of its North American stores and closed at least 28 locations across Washington, including both of its high-profile Seattle Reserve locations: the flagship Reserve Roastery on Capitol Hill and the Reserve store at its SoDo headquarters. The Capitol Hill Roastery, which opened in 2014 and had become a tourist destination, was shuttered as Starbucks closed hundreds of stores nationally. The company said it was targeting locations where it could not provide the environment it wanted or where it saw no viable path to financial performance.

The Seattle pullback continued in 2026. Starbucks announced five additional Seattle-area closures in March, including its location at Seattle Children's Hospital, and in July permanently closed its longtime store inside downtown's DocuSign Tower after more than a decade. The company cited declining building occupancy and expected loss of the tower's anchor tenant among the factors behind that decision.

There are now only a handful of locations remaining in downtown Seattle.