Delaware’s unemployment rate went up for the first time this year last month.
The rate had been resting at a 30-year low 3.2 percent for three straight months. It rose to 3.3 percent in July. That’s only the third monthly unemployment increase in Delaware in the past seven years.
Meanwhile, the national rate held steady at 3.7 percent.
State Labor Department officials call the rise in state unemployment insignificant, but warn of a recent drop in Delaware jobs.
According to a Current Employment Statistics Survey, the First State has lost about 500 jobs since December after gaining about 3,700 in last five months of 2018.
The survey shows a similar trend on the national level. The U.S. added an average 218,000 per month to end last year and that rate has slowed to 141,000 since January.
Officials note survey data is subject to error.
