By Matt Bittle

DOVER — Delaware’s jobless rate saw a small decrease last month but still lags behind the country as a whole, even after the United States witnessed a minor rise in unemployment in April.

According to data released Friday by the Delaware Department of Labor, 6.4% of Delawareans in the labor force were out of work in April, down from 6.5% one month before. Nationally, the jobless rate went from 6% to 6.1%.

It’s been more than a year since COVID-19 first arrived in the country, and unemployment data reflects the wild swings during that time frame.

In February 2020, the last full month before the coronavirus hit the First State, 4.5% of Delawareans were out of work. The jobless rate shot up from 4.8% to 13.4% from March to April last year and remained at similar levels in May and June before slipping down to 8.3% in July.

Unemployment continued declining until October, when it hit 5.7%. The rate has largely remained static since, never changing by more than 0.1% in a month.

Across the country, just 3.5% of Americans were out of work in February 2020, a figure that quickly climbed to 4.4% in March and then 14.8% in April. There were sizable decreases in the three ensuing months, though the jobless rate remained in double digits until hitting 8.4% in August.

Aside from December, which saw no change from the prior month’s 6.7%, the rate had decreased for 10 consecutive months before April of this year. Still, the share of Americans out of work remains at the highest pre-pandemic point in almost seven years.

Delaware has added 44,800 jobs over the past 12 months, though the state still has a way to go before reaching the level it was at prior to COVID-19 and the ensuing lockdown.

Of those positions, 17,800 were in leisure and hospitality, while 9,500 were in wholesale and retail trade.

2020’s job loss is the biggest on record for Delaware, easily surpassing the nadir of the Great Recession. Before last year, the state’s highest unemployment rate on record was 9.8% in 1976, the first year relevant job data is available. Similarly, before the pandemic, Delaware had never seen its jobless rate improve by more than 0.3% in a single month.

Average weekly earnings here for April 2021 were $951.80, an increase of about $5 from March but a decline of about $9 compared to April 2020.

Locally, unemployment for April was 6% in New Castle County, 7% in Kent County and 5.6% in Sussex County. However, unlike the state data, the county figures are not seasonally adjusted.