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Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Downtown Seattle’s worker foot traffic reached its highest monthly level since March 2020 in May 2023, rising 9.5% from April and 38.7% from May 2022. Amazon’s return-to-office mandate took effect that month and likely contributed, but the figures show a timing and location match—not proof that the mandate caused the increase. Worker traffic also remained about half its pre-pandemic level at the time.
What reached a post-pandemic high?
The figure was a workplace-focused measure of downtown worker foot traffic, based on Downtown Seattle Association (DSA) data calculated by Placer.ai and reported by GeekWire on June 6, 2023. It was the highest monthly level since March 2020—not an all-time high for every kind of downtown activity.
In May 2023, worker foot traffic increased 9.5% month over month and 38.7% year over year. The series counted Tuesday through Thursday, so those comparisons describe that measure and reporting period rather than every weekday or all people visiting downtown.
How much did Amazon’s mandate contribute?
Amazon’s office mandate took effect May 1, 2023. The increase coincided with that change, and the strongest reported neighborhood rise was in Denny Triangle, where Amazon’s headquarters is located: worker foot traffic there rose 27% from April and nearly doubled year over year. That pattern is consistent with the mandate having helped, but it does not isolate Amazon’s effect from other causes or establish a controlled causal estimate.
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Why worker traffic is not the same as visitor activity
DSA’s later reporting separates workplace presence from unique visitors. Its State of Downtown 2026 Economic Report Topline Summary, which reports principally on 2025 and identifies Placer.ai as an underlying source, says average weekday worker traffic was 144,848 in 2025. That was nearly 4% higher than in 2024, but only 64% of the 2019 average.
By contrast, DSA counted 15,343,570 unique downtown visitors in 2025—102% of the 2019 figure. DSA also said total visits grew by 3 million year over year, suggesting people were visiting more often. A unique-visitor count and a worker-presence measure track different things: visitors can exceed their 2019 level even while weekday worker traffic remains below it.
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What the latest worker measure shows
On DSA’s Downtown Dashboard, accessed October 8, 2026, August 2026 worker foot traffic was 62% of the August 2019 daily average. This is a month-specific comparison, not a replacement for the 2025 annual average or the May 2023 monthly high.
DSA says its foot-traffic measures use cellphone location data, count each person once per day, and exclude international visitors. Its office-worker-presence subset counts workers present between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. on weekdays. DSA also classifies a worker who has not visited a work site in 90 days as a visitor until that person visits regularly—at least three times in one week. These definitions matter when comparing the dashboard’s categories or interpreting a change as a change in the number of people physically downtown.
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What the numbers do—and do not—say about recovery
The foot-traffic gains are evidence of renewed activity, not proof of a complete economic recovery. In its March 2026 release, DSA reported more than 13,000 estimated downtown jobs lost in 2025, office vacancy of 25% downtown and above 32% in the central business district. DSA President and CEO Jon Scholes said, “Downtown Seattle has experienced a healthy amount of momentum over the past year,” while warning, “But we can’t ignore the real challenges we face — from job losses and office vacancy to homelessness.”
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