Delaware’s unemployment rate in November reaches its highest point in four years.
Delaware’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.9% in November, the highest since October 2021 according to the Office of Occupational and Labor Market Information.
Delaware’s unemployment rate in September was 4.5% and in November 2024 it was at 3.6%. The U.S unemployment rate in November was at 4.6%.
Delaware’s local and county unemployment rates – which are not seasonally adjusted – were also all higher in November than September.
There was no October unemployment report because of the federal government shutdown.
There was some good news as the seasonally adjusted nonfarm jobs numbers went up to 494,000 from 493,300 in October.
Tom Dougherty is chief of the Office of Occupational and Labor Market Information. He explains the stark difference between the unemployment rate and jobs numbers.
"The numbers come from different surveys. So with the jobs number, that's an establishment survey. So we survey businesses, and the unemployment numbers are a household survey. It's based on the household survey with the current population surveys being the basis for that. And then we model that for Delaware," said Dougherty.
From November 2024 through November 2025, Delaware’s total nonfarm jobs have shown a net gain of 3,300 which is a 0.7% increase, narrowly outpacing the national increase of 0.5% in that same time period.
He says one industry is key to Delaware gaining jobs.
"The Private Education and Health industry, which is up 2,500 every year, which is basically almost three-quarters of all the jobs in Delaware are from that one industry,” said Dougherty. “On the other side we have over the year we have manufacturing, which is down 700 jobs."
December’s jobs and unemployment report will be released later this month.
