Bellevue benefits from having a well educated workforce with significant professional expertise and from cultural diversity.
Bellevue has a highly educated and cosmopolitan population with two-thirds of those 25 and older having a bachelor’s degree or higher, half of whom who have a graduate or professional degree, and with over 39 percent of its population having been born in a foreign country.
In Bellevue and Seattle, the proportions of workers in management, business, science and arts occupations (Bellevue 55% and Seattle 54%) were higher than in the state (40%) and county (49%). The distribution of occupations for those working in Bellevue was nearly identical to that in Seattle, except Bellevue had a higher proportion of workers in sales and office occupations and a lower proportion of workers in production, transportation and material moving occupations.
Occupation Distribution Comparison, 2015
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2015 American Community Survey.
Following its job numbers, Bellevue had the highest proportion of workers employed by professional, scientific, and management services industries with 24 percent compared to Seattle’s 19 percent, the county’s 18 percent and the state’s 13 percent. Bellevue also had a higher percentage of workers in retail industries and lower percentages in educational, health care and social services, public administration, and transportation, warehousing and utilities.
Industry Distribution Comparison, 2015
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2015 American Community Survey.
About 38 percent of those working in Bellevue earned $75,000 or more in 2015, higher than the proportions in the state, county and Seattle.
Earning Distribution Comparison, 2015
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2015 American Community Survey.