They have very nearly exhausted the pool of strong technical talent that can be recruited locally within the seattle area, who are not already gainfully employed at some other tech company. Also because building new office campus space in Seattle is becoming a bottleneck. Amazon is spread out through a bunch of temporarily leased buildings until the new towers are finished. Also they have sort of exhausted the number of people who are willing to relocate to Seattle.
On the "talent pool exhaustion" idea: it's common knowledge that almost no one goes to Amazon with the intent of staying there long-term. From what I gather, they're still grappling with people staying just long enough to get a healthy chunk of material benefits before moving on to work that they actually might _want_ to do (helped by having Amazon listed on their resume).
Amazon's reputation as a caring, paternalistic employer is also very well known in the Seattle area. Most of their new employees are imports for that reason, brought in ignorant and tethered by relocation expenses.
1st the Lure: bonu$ with first month check + $10K+ in relo
2nd the Hook: 6 month blushing period
3rd the Sinker: layoff old team, give threatening overtures and about lost trust and missed deliveries
Meanwhile everyone is in a 12-month lease, certainly spent the relocation, and definitely not in the mood to relocate again. Anyone that dipped into that bonus is really hooked, anyone that didn't is annoyed at the thought of giving up their signing bonus to cover relocation which would make the whole venture a wash.
So yeah, the further away from Seattle recruits are from the better. Luckily Seattle's geographic location enhances this. Ironically, an east coast HQ2 would probably weaken this trapping mechanism for all but foreign labor who are verily fucked no matter what thanks to visa,H1B,L1 fun.
Also, a lot of the people who were willing to relocate to Seattle are reluctant to stay after years of worsening ostracization and seething resentment.
For me personally, I cannot ever relocate to Seattle because of the weather. I live in Boston, which has its own issues, but at least it's often sunny during the winter and I can get out for a walk most days.
I have a lot of family around Seattle and have visited frequently. One year I visited in May and it rained nonstop, oscillating between a soft drizzle to a torrential downpour, for 10 straight days! Too depressing for me.
I encourage everyone in the Seattle area to constantly remind everyone of how much it rains. Hopefully it will slightly cut down on the number of Californians moving to the PNW.
As a long time Seattle resident the only way to make it through winter without becoming depressed is to take up skiing, kiteboarding or some other sport that is fun and gets you outside in winter. Additionally, a two week vacation to Hawaii or another sunny location is also a must. Otherwise SAD will start to ruin you by the time March rolls around. Last year was brutal as we only had 11 clear days between October and May.
i live on the other side of the mountains, its usually nice an sunny over here for most of winter, but much colder. We also have much hotter summers and forest fires in the late summer, but hey, no grey gloom.
People do form weird perceptions, especially from short trips to places they don't know well, but your numbers are wrong.
137/152 are the number of days w/ precipitation, not sunny days. ie, Seattle has less rain, but more days of precipitation. This is typical comparing Seattle with many other cities: less rain total, but spread over more days.
Those more days are concentrated in winter, more so than in is typical in other parts of the country. If you look at the "hours of sunshine" stat over a whole year in your links, the typical seasonal change people complain about in the PNW is right there: Apr - Sep are similar, but Nov - Feb Seattle gets half as much hours of sun.
The concentration of gloomy drizzly days in winter is quite real.
I live in Bellevue (across the lake from Seattle), and get out for walks everyday with my 1 year old. Sometimes I have to put a rain guard over his stroller, but the rain is almost always light enough that I don't need to even bother with an umbrella for myself.
Rain in May is a bit weird (only 1.9 inches on average according to wiki), torrential down pours in Seattle are even weirder, especially outside of October/November.
I moved to Seattle almost 2 years ago now. My main reasons for wanting to leave are the 9 sunless months per year and I feel a little put off by people. I can't put my finger on it, its very nuanced.
Hmm, also in Seattle and seem to recall a record long summer last year with 100+ days of no rain (well, one which just managed to trip it by volume at SEATAC in the middle).
Personally, I think the whole 'Seattle has horrible' weather is pretty overblown. It's grey for a couple of months.
I'm writing this now, in February, to a perfectly blue sky. It is cold, but not grey in the least.
I've personally found it more challenging that folks don't seem to socialize much. They just work non-stop throughout the week, then perhaps do something on the weekend. It contrasts quite a lot to when I was in New Zealand where you frequently see your friends after work.
"Grey for a couple of months"? Are you an Amazon recruiter? Seattle had nine sunny days over a five-month period last year. It's objectively one of the grayest places in the US. Without the perfect summers we'd be fools to live here.
I moved here from Boston. It isn't even a comparison for me. Boston would basically shut down as a city multiple times a winter, roads would get blocked multiple times (and the trains would shut down), the general temp during the main 4ish month stretch of "winter" is a solid 30F lower, and with the windchill it can be actually physically painful to be outside even when properly dressed.
More sun is great, but I prefer regular drizzles at 40F to a clear sky in the single-digits punctuated by massive blizzards.
Seattle summers are basically a drought. Winter is where all the rain comes, and even then it is only about average (notable because it is concentrated in time and fairly continuous but light). Still, native Seattlites will up play the rain issue to keep outsiders away, hehe (Portland and Vancouver, BTW, get more rain than Seattle).
