Delaware’s unemployment rate ticked up for a fourth straight month in February - this time from 6.1 to 6.3%.
Delaware’s rate is now higher than the nation’s, which went down slightly last month from 6.3 to 6.2%.
There are just under 9,000 more unemployed Delawareans than this time last year. And the state’s jobless rate is nearly 2% higher than last February - two months before it skyrocketed to more than 14% as a result of COVID lockdowns.
The total number of jobs in Delaware rose slightly last month to 443,500. That’s still about 24,300 less jobs than last year - Delaware sustained a 5.3% loss while the nation lost 6% of its total jobs.
The sectors with biggest year over year job loss in Delaware are hospitality followed by health and education.
Dover and Wilmington continue to be the most affected cities in Delaware. Each has a more than 10% unemployment rate.
