Delaware’s unemployment rate dropped slightly to start the new year.
New data shows joblessness in the First State settled back down to 3.5% for the month of January – that’s a tenth of a percent drop from the year’s end.
It’s also a half point below unemployment nationally, which was an even 4% in January.
But Delaware’s Department of Labor is also walking back initial estimates of First State job growth in 2018.
While survey data released late last year indicated about 10,000 new jobs added to the Delaware marketplace in 2018, new, and more reliable, payroll data shows only about 3,800 jobs were added at that time.
But initial unemployment estimates from last year have also been revised and found to be slightly overinflated.
Experts say the unemployed population in Delaware last year fell below 17,000 for the first time since 2007. That’s more than 20,000 people fewer than at the state’s unemployment peak in 2010.
