The gap between Delaware’s jobless rate and the national rate continued to grow this year, according to Delaware Department of Labor Data.
Delaware’s unemployment rate climbed to 5.4% in January, up from 5.3% in December. The national rate in January was 4.3% percent.
While higher unemployment between December and January is normal, the Labor Dept. said the uptick going into the new year shows a more notable shift. The unemployment rate a year earlier in January 2025 was 4.1%.
That increase means 6,600 more Delawareans were unemployed in January 2026 than in January 2025.
Delaware Labor Secretary LaKresha Moultrie said her department is waiting on national data to confirm the underlying drivers of this year-long increase in Delawareans out of work.
"What we suspect is what we saw in the fourth quarter of last year is related to seasonal employment," she said. "And we'll be able to take a closer look at that data in the very near future to determine if that's what it is."
While her department managed the correlated rise in unemployment claims, it also worked to address a significant backlog.
Delaware’s Department of Labor said it’s completely cleared a backlog of more than 7,000 unemployment cases, that stemmed from the pandemic job loss.
Moultrie said to get through the initial backlog, her department increased staff and devoted more of its resources to processing claims.
And to get through 12,000 new cases filed between December 2025 and January 2026, it kept up these enhancements. But to avoid falling underwater again, she said the department will need to make more permanent changes.
"The other piece of that, which is important is utilizing technology," Moultrie said. "I've been reaching out to other labor secretaries to talk to them about their strategies related to modernization."
Moultrie added her department has employed vendors for some modest updates. But it’s looking to approach a larger project related to system updates and new technology for managing claims.
With the backlog cleared, the state saw significant revisions to its data. Delaware revises its historical unemployment and labor force data annually. The Unemployment revisions are based on employment counts from the administrative data of employees covered by Unemployment Insurance. Labor force revisions are based on information from the Census Bureau, updated employment data, and Unemployment Insurance claims.
The DOL said that Kent County’s 2025 annual average unemployment rate was revised up from 4.9% to 5.3%. Sussex County’s unemployment rate also was revised up 0.4 percentage points from 4.3% to 4.7%. New Castle County had the smallest upward revision increasing from 4.5% to 4.7%.
