Skyscrapers dot the skyline in Downtown Seattle. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)

The latest Seattle Tech Ecosystem Report shows that the region’s innovation ecosystem continues to grow, though the short and long-term effects of COVID-19 crisis are still to be determined.

The fifth annual report from the University of Washington-Bothell School of Business and iInnovate Network provides an overview of the tech, health, and life sciences activity in and around Seattle. It cites various reports and rankings, and provides lists of resources including local investors, accelerators, service providers, and other groups supporting the ongoing innovation.

Seattle and the state of Washington continue to be a national hub for STEM jobs, GDP growth, and venture capital investments in 2019, the report noted. Jobs in the information, communications, and technology sector grew faster than any other sectors, according to the state’s department of commerce.

“There is no doubt that the trends we saw in 2019 will be majorly impacted by the coronavirus,” R. Joe Ottinger, CEO of iInnovate Network, said in the report. “It will be difficult to project how Washington state’s innovation economy and entrepreneurial companies will rebound. With that said, our goal is to maximize learning about how to build a great innovation economy, and, from the coronavirus, we will gain insights that, hopefully, will help our state and entrepreneurs weather a major, difficult, and sad disruption.”

Though local stalwarts Microsoft and Amazon have weathered the COVID-19 crisis and could end up with more market share when normalcy returns, the pandemic could jeopardize Seattle’s startup scene. More than half of Seattle-area startup leaders surveyed by the Washington Technology Industry Association said that they have less than six months of cash runway remaining, and 23% have less than two months.

While many companies are pulling back on hiring or laying off staff, some are still adding new workers, including those in sectors such as telemedicine and cloud computing.

The global pandemic might also impact the Silicon Valley engineering outposts that have added an interesting dynamic to Seattle’s burgeoning tech community over the past 15 years as companies such as Uber, Airbnb, and others trim their workforce.

See the full report here.

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