Delaware’s unemployment rate sits at 6.8 percent for the month of October, the first time it’s been below seven percent since December 2008.
The 6.8 percent figure is down two tenths of a percent from September and the figure dropped half a percentage point since August.
The numbers are good news for Gov. Jack Markell (D-Delaware). Markell's critics pointed to a stagnant economy, including the lack of job growth, during his recent tour of town hall meetings.
Markell says there's still work to do, despite the improving numbers.
"As far as I'm concerned, as long as there's anybody in Delaware who wants to work and isn't working I won't be satisfied," said Markell.
Markell adds he’ll continue to emphasize connecting employers with recruitment, training and education assistance programs as one way to chip away at the state’s jobless rate.
“We’ve really got to focus more and more on the workforce development strategy because what I hear from businesses over and over again is how important workforce development is," said Markell. "So I think that will continue to be a major, major focus.”
He says his other top priority is helping to translate innovative research from colleges and universities into real jobs.
Head of Delaware's Republican Party Charlie Copeland called October's jobs report, "awful."
"The weekly earnings are down; the hourly earnings are down; the number of hours worked is down; and the labor force is smaller."
Weekly earnings dipped $25.00 a week, employees worked about an hour less per week, while the labor force lost 800 workers. However, those considering themselves unemployed dropped by 900.
George Sharpley, Chief Economist for the state’s Labor Department, says he suspected the state was experiencing stronger job growth for a while and the data now reflects it. September jobs numbers were delayed until this month by the federal government shutdown earlier this fall.
Pre-recession, Delaware’s unemployment rate ranged from three to four percent and despite the sudden surge in growth, Sharpley says that goal is still far off.
“I suspect that we won’t get back to the [three percent mark] for quite awhile [and] that maybe some of the job loss that we’ve had is actually structural, which means that it’s going to stick around for longer. So yeah, I think five percent is probably a pretty good number to shoot for,” said Sharpley.
Sharpley also notes that there is a discrepancy between two points of labor force data. One survey counted 8,800 new jobs from Oct. 2012 to Oct. 2013, but another tallied a decrease by 4,000.
"I'm pretty confident that what's going to happen is that at the beginning of next year this labor force is going to be revised to show job growth instead of job loss and I'm basing that on the payroll data which is a more solid series showing us solid job gains," said Sharpley.
Sharpley adds he foresees additional drops in the unemployment rate over the next few months.
The Department of Labor reports Wilmington's non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained at 9.8 percent in October after falling form 10.7 to 9.8 in September.
In New Castle County, non-seasonally adjusted unemployment fell two-tenths of a percent in October to 6.5 percent. It was at 6.7 percent in September and 7.2 percent in August.
Kent County also showed declines in unemployment over the last two months falling from 7.5 percent in August to 6.8 in September and 6.6 in October.
Sussex County was the only county that shown increases in non-seasonally-adjusted unemployment, rising from 5.8 percent in August to 6.0 percent in September and 6.2 percent in October.
