Delaware’s unemployment rate drops again while jobs numbers increase in February.
Delaware’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped to 4.6% in February down from 4.8% in January.
And it's made steady progress since hitting its highest point early in the pandemic when it reached 13.3% in May 2020.
There were 23,000 unemployed Delawareans last month compared to 28,200 in February of 2021.
The national rate in February was 3.8%.
Tom Dougherty is the Chief of Delaware Office of Occupational Labor Market Information. He says despite the state numbers lagging behind the national numbers the state is moving in a positive direction.
"The recovery is continuing. We've come down quite a bit, the nation's come down quite a bit as well so we're still not as low as the US, but we're still trending in the right direction," said Dougherty.
And the state saw an increase of 1,300 nonfarm jobs in February over January.
Dougherty says while the job growth numbers are positive, they are lagging behind the national rate.
"Over the year we've gained 10,500 jobs, and that's an increase of 2.4% so we're increasing pretty well. We're not rising as fast as the nation which is rising at 4.8% over the year,” said Dougherty. So we are growing, but we are growing at a slower rate than the US. It would be nice to grow at a faster rate, but at least we're headed in a positive direction."
Over the last year, the Leisure and Hospitality sector has added 2,700 jobs in Delaware, Wholesale and Retail Trade added 2,900 jobs, and Professional and Business Services added 1,700 jobs.
Education and Health Services jobs are down 1,700 over the last year.
