State reports slight rise to 5.3 percent

By Matt Bittle
Posted 1/23/21

DOVER — After six consecutive months of decline from a record high, Delaware’s unemployment rate saw a small increase in December.

According to data released by the Delaware Department …

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State reports slight rise to 5.3 percent

Posted

DOVER — After six consecutive months of decline from a record high, Delaware’s unemployment rate saw a small increase in December.

According to data released by the Delaware Department of Labor, 5.3% of the state’s workforce was not employed last month. That’s up from 5.1% in November.

Nationally, 6.7% of workers were unemployed, the same as in November, indicating the economic recovery may have stalled a bit, in part due to rising coronavirus cases.

Four percent of Delawareans and 3.6% of Americans were out of work in December 2019.

December marks the end of an unprecedented year, with COVID-19 causing a tremendous spike in unemployment. The state’s jobless rate slipped to 3.9% in February, before climbing to 5.1% in March. That increase represented the state’s largest month-to-month jump since September 1990, but things were just getting started: Unemployment shot up to 14.9% in April, hitting 15.9% a month later.

Nationwide, unemployment jumped from 4.4% in March to 14.7% in April before beginning a decline.

Delaware’s first coronavirus case was announced March 11, and businesses were under serious restrictions by the end of the month, with residents urged to remain home.

The state has received nearly 177,000 unemployment claims since the pandemic began 10 months ago.

Prior to 2020, Delaware’s highest unemployment 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.

During the Great Recession, its worst point was 8.8%, coming in January 2010.

Nationally, the early months of the pandemic saw unemployment reach levels not matched since the Great Depression.

The state has lost about 36,300 nonfarm jobs over the past 12 months, with more than half coming in the fields of leisure and hospitality or education and health. Despite — or perhaps because of — that figure, Delaware’s private-sector weekly earnings for November averaged $952.57, a $35 increase from one year ago. That is down about $15 from the prior month, however.

October marked the first time the First State’s unemployment level was better than the nation’s as a whole since March 2019.

Locally, New Castle, Kent and Sussex counties reported unemployment in December of 4.9%, 5.2% and 4.5%, respectively. However, unlike the state data, the county figures are not seasonally adjusted.

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