July’s unemployment rate was up slightly.
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate last month was at 4.1% - up from 4.0% in June, and higher than July 2024 when it was 3.7%.
The national number was at 4.2% last month which was also a tenth of a point increase from June, and matched last July’s number.
There were 21,100 unemployed Delawareans in July, and Tom Dougherty – chief of the Office of Occupational and Labor Market Information – says that’s higher than both last month and last year.
"Over the month, we have an increase of 600 unemployed Delawareans. Compared to a year ago, we're up 2,100," said Dougherty.
Even though those numbers are higher, it’s not all bad news.
Dougherty says jobs numbers were higher.
"The jobs numbers are also up,” said Dougherty. “We have an increase of 300 jobs over the month. So seasonally adjusted we're 492,900 jobs, but compared to a year ago, if you look at the year ago number, we usually look at the not seasonally adjusted number because we're comparing the same month from a year ago, we're at 5,700 jobs over the year."
Dougherty notes that net gain of 5,700 since July 2024 is a 1.2% increase, besting the national jobs growth rate of 0.9% rate during that same period.
Last month’s numbers were helped by the Trade, Transportation and Utilities industry adding 600 jobs and the Professional and Business Services industry seeing 300 more.
The bad news was that the Leisure & Hospitality industry, which shed 500 jobs in July.
