Delaware’s unemployment rate remained unchanged at 6.5 percent in September as more people entered the workforce.
The Delaware Department of Labor reported that the the number of unemployed Delawareans increased by 200, while the number of employed residents was up by 1,400. The report also showed a continuing reversal of a falling rate of labor market participation that dated back a decade, the department noted. The participation rate has risen throughout the year in Delaware, a contrast to the nation as a whole.
The Delaware unemployment rate is now well above the nation’s overall jobless rate of 5.9 percent. At the same time, however, the labor participation rate has fallen nationwide.
The September unemployment rate in adjacent Pennsylvania is 5.7 percent, with New Jersey at 6.5 percent. Maryland’s August jobless rate was 6.6 percent.
The higher rate could turn the unemployment rate into an election issue, since the state has historically seen a jobless figure well below the national average. Labor market officials caution that unemployment figures are subject to adjustment and should be viewed over a period of months.
There were 29,400 unemployed Delawareans in September 2014, compared to 29,300 in September 2013. The U.S. unemployment rate was 5.9 percent in September 2014, down from 6.1 percent in August 2014. In September 2013, the U.S. unemployment rate was 7.2 percent , while Delaware’s rate was 6.6 percent.
In September, seasonally adjusted nonfarm employment was 441,100, up from 439,900 in August 2014. Since September 2013, Delaware’s total nonfarm jobs have increased by 11,000, a rise of 2.6 percent.
Nationally, jobs during that period increased 1.9 percent. The state’s labor force has grown by 8,600, or 1.9 percent, since March. With employer-based jobs growing almost twice as fast in Delaware as in the nation aa a whole, the unemployment rate “appears to be the outlier,” the Department of Labor release stated.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia had earlier forecast the jobless rate would remain unchanged in September.
