Delaware’s unemployment rate fell sharply 6.4 to 6 percent in November, with the number of em-
ployed residents rising by 1,500 and the number unemployed falling by 1,800, the Delaware Department of Labor reported.
The state’s jobless rate is still slightly higher than the national figure, after decades of often being a percent or so below the U.S. number.
The state also saw an increase in the labor participation rate, which now stands at 61.5 percent as more “discouraged workers” entered the labor force. In recent years, lower participation rates led to lower unemployment rates, without the feeling that the market was “turning around.
The higher participation rate has come as a surprise in some quarters, due to an aging population taking early retirement, as well as a large pool of workers without the skills required in the current economy.
The labor department reported 3,200 new jobs in a separate business survey. As it stands, the four-tenths of one percent drop in the unemployment rate is the biggest monthly decline on record. The job gain is also unusually large.
The department reported that past jobless rates are likely to be revised downward, perhaps by several tenths of one percent, with similar revisions downward with the total workforce. States use sampling methods, with harder coming in later and leading to revisions.
However, 2014 is still likely to be the best year for job growth in Delaware since the late 1990s, the department reported. The state recently reported record total employment, making for a sharp loss of jobs that came in 2009 and the state lost both auto plants and saw sharp downsizings at other employers.
The U.S. unemployment rate was 5.8 percent in November unchanged from October. In November 2013, the U.S. unemployment rate was 7.0%, while Delaware’s rate was 6.3%.
In November 2014, seasonally adjusted non farm employment was 446,800, up from 443,600 in Oc- tober 2014.
Since November 2013, total non farm jobs in Delaware have increased by 12,600, an increase of 2.9 percent. Nationally, jobs during that period increased 2.0 percent.
On the minus side, wages remained stagnant, according to state figures, although the average number of hours worked increase, leading to slight gains in paychecks.
