The Puget Sound Regional Council has posted estimates of employment in March 2009 for the cities in the four-county PSRC region here.

From March 2008 to March 2009, the number of private sector jobs in the city of Seattle fell by 23,173 (5.6%), from 415,165 to 391,992. Of the lost jobs, 3,729 were in construction. For a discussion of the PSRC data and Seattle’s job growth from 2000 to 2008 see our policy brief Seattle’s Lost Decade.

The state employment security department estimates that private employment in King County fell by 36,000 from March 2009 to March 2010, so I expect to see another 15,000 to 20,000 drop in Seattle employment when the PSRC releases its estimates for March 2010. At the mid-point, this would mean that has Seattle lost 40,000 private sector jobs in two years.