Employs American round outskirts of Seattle (4)
I believe the answer is:
uses
'employs' is the definition.
('use' can be a synonym of 'employ')
'american round outskirts of seattle' is the wordplay.
'american' becomes 'us'.
'round' is a reversal indicator.
'outskirts of' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'seattle' with its centre taken out is 'se'.
'se' in reverse letter order is 'es'.
'us'+'es'='USES'
(Other definitions for uses that I've seen before include "Puts into service" , "What an employer does" , "Utilises" , "deployments" , "Sues (anag.)" .)