Bellevue firm said no to layoffs for decades. Now it's cutting 230 jobs
Expeditors International, a Fortune 500 global logistics company headquartered in Bellevue, announced plans to lay off 230 Seattle-area employees, breaking a long-held commitment to avoiding mass layoffs.
The company was founded in 1979 in the Seattle area as a freight forwarding and customs brokerage firm, with an early focus on ocean shipping. Over time, it transitioned from manual processes to tech platforms, expanding to tracking and coordinating shipments moving around the world.
Although the company is headquartered in Bellevue, it has owned two multistory office buildings on Third Avenue in downtown Seattle for decades.
On Monday, the company filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification with the Washington State Employment Security Department disclosing plans to lay off 230 employees, mostly tech workers, in Bellevue, Lynnwood, Federal Way, Seattle and Airway Heights - a small city west of Spokane.
Expeditors International did not respond to requests for comment.
Employees went online to express their shock at the layoffs, which appear to be unprecedented for the company. For decades under the leadership of co-founder and former CEO Peter Rose, Expeditors International had a "no layoffs" policy.
The company refused to make mass cuts during the Great Recession, even boasting on its website that the "main reason for such a successful year is predicated on one large factor … our no layoff policy."
That policy seemed to remain for a decade after Rose's departure in 2014. While other companies shed tech jobs in 2022 and 2023, Expeditors International once again avoided layoffs.
But recently, the website was altered to refer to previous decisions against layoffs as "our short-term no layoff policy."
In the WARN notice, the company said the 230 layoffs are due to workplace restructuring involving the company's global technology department in the U.S.
The affected employees were notified on Monday. According to the notice, the layoffs will take effect in August and run until the end of the year.
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This story was originally published June 9, 2026 at 4:58 PM.