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Monthly unemployment numbers offer another view of coronavirus impact

State Department of Labor officials say Delaware’s unemployment rate rose to 14.3% in April. 

That’s a more than 9% increase from the month before when Gov. John Carney first declared a state of emergency in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

The state’s unemployment rate had hovered at or below 5% leading up to the emergency for the first few months of 2020. 

66,700 Delawareans were claiming unemployment last month - almost four times as much as the 17,600 making claims the same time last year. 

And that number has certainly gone up in the last few weeks. Department of Labor officials say the state is likely at a 20% unemployment rate. 

The claims being made run the gamut of business sectors with the hospitality industry leading the claims. 

The national rate was slightly higher for the month of April than Delaware’s at 14.7%.

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