Starbucks 135-Worker Seatac Closure Filing: What the Newest Washington WARN Notice Shows

Starbucks has filed a new Washington WARN notice covering 135 workers, with a planned effective date of December 31, 2026. The notice, dated October 23, 2026, is the newest official filing in the Layoff Atlas registry, and it is recorded as a closure, filed through the Washington Employment Security Department.

These are reported plans, not confirmed job losses. A WARN filing is an advance notification of a qualifying layoff or closure. It does not, by itself, confirm that every listed job will end on the stated date, and filings can be updated, phased, or withdrawn. That caveat matters for every number in this article.

What the filing says

The record is straightforward:

• Employer: Starbucks
• Workers affected: 135
• Event type: Closure
• Filing status: Filed
• Source classification: Permanent
• Notice date: October 23, 2026
• Planned effective date: December 31, 2026
• Reported location: Seatac, Seattle
• Source agency: Washington Employment Security Department

The filing's location field needs care. The record retains "Seatac, Seattle" as the reported location, but it lists no single city, county, ZIP code, or published worksite address, and no single worksite should be inferred from it. This filing tells us how many workers are affected and when the change is planned, but it does not name one specific store or facility address.

A 69-day notice period

From October 23 to December 31 is 69 days, nine days longer than the federal WARN Act's standard 60-day advance-notice period for covered employers. That is a useful check, not a guarantee: individual circumstances, contracts, and state rules can change what applies in a given case. The filing itself does not explain the reason for the closure, and no reason should be read into it. Workers reading a WARN notice should always check the original document for phased dates, updates, and exceptions, because a single effective date can hide a staggered schedule underneath.

Not an isolated Starbucks filing in Washington

The same filing page lists five earlier 2026 Starbucks filings in Washington, which puts the new notice in context rather than treating it as a one-off:

• 51 workers, effective November 14, 2026, notice dated October 7, 2026, recorded as a closure
• 224 workers, effective October 19, 2026, notice dated August 20, 2026, recorded as a layoff
• 252 workers, effective July 17, 2026, notice dated May 15, 2026, recorded as a layoff
• 61 workers, effective June 20, 2026, notice dated May 8, 2026, recorded as a layoff
• 69 workers, effective March 29, 2026, notice dated March 27, 2026, recorded as a closure

Together with the new filing, those six listed records total 792 reported workers. That sum describes only the filings shown on this record's related list, not a company-wide total. Still, the pattern is clear: Starbucks has appeared repeatedly in Washington's 2026 WARN record, across both layoffs and closures.

Washington in the national picture

Washington remains the largest state in the current 90-day national window. As of the latest registry update, the national window holds 703 notices covering 66,118 reported workers, with 33 worker counts unavailable. The top states by reported workers are Washington (17,073), California (14,224), Illinois (4,626), Texas (3,652), and Ohio (3,180).

Washington's longer archive is much larger: 1,524 non-cancelled imported notices reporting 249,341 workers, with 47 notices carrying future effective dates. In 2026 alone, Washington shows 129 notices and 27,943 reported workers, against 132 notices and 31,257 workers in 2025. Over the last 365 days, the state has 156 eligible official filings reporting 32,048 workers, and the newest official notice date is October 23, 2026 — this Starbucks filing. Washington's 2026 total is built from many mid-sized filings like this one, not only from a handful of very large ones.

What comes next on the calendar

Nationally, the upcoming effective weeks are uneven: 2,759 workers for the week of October 24, 7,437 for October 31, 4,326 for November 7, 8,404 for November 14, 6,925 for November 21, and 5,760 for November 28. The Starbucks filing's December 31 date falls beyond that six-week window — a reminder that effective dates already stretch into early 2027 in several states.

For affected workers, the practical next step is not in the registry at all: it is the notice itself, any separation information from the employer, and the state's rapid-response and unemployment resources. A WARN filing starts a clock; it does not answer questions about severance or benefits, which depend on employer policy, contracts, and state programs.

How to read this filing

Three habits help when a new filing like this one appears. First, separate the reported plan from the outcome: 135 workers are listed as affected, not a confirmed count of job losses. Second, separate the location label from a worksite: "Seatac, Seattle" is how the location was reported, not a confirmed address. Third, check the dates: a 69-day notice period and a year-end effective date tell a different story than a filing made days before the change.

On its own terms, this is a mid-sized closure notice with a year-end effective date. Its wider interest comes from the pattern around it — repeated Washington filings through 2026, a state total that leads the country, and a national calendar already filling into December and beyond.

Data source: Layoff Atlas