The unemployment rate in Delaware was up a tick in July.
The seasonally adjusted rate was at 4.1% last month up from 4% in June, which is lower than the national rate of 4.3% which was up from 4.1%.
Perhaps more alarmingly, the state’s labor force declined for a ninth straight month in July.
There were 505,300 workers in the Delaware last month a 4,600 decrease from October 2023.
Also, the labor force participation rate which is the percentage of labor force compared to work-eligible participation was at 59.7 – the second lowest level on record.
That was only .2 percentage points higher than the lowest ever recorded which was in April 2020 – the early stages of the COVID pandemic.
There was some good news last month as the seasonally adjusted nonfarm employment was 490,000 up slightly from June.
Since July 2023, there’s been a net gain of 6,200 a rise of 1.3%, but that lags behind the national number of 1.6%.
