Delaware ended up with the fastest income and employment growth among the three states in the territory of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. The figures comes from the Philadelphia Fed’s Tri-State Tracking index. Click on the link below for the Fed report:
The 1.3 percent growth rate in jobs topped Pennsylvania at 1 percent and New Jersey at .9 percent. That was still far lower than the national rate of more than 2 percent.
When it came to income growth, the First State saw a 3.97 percent growth rate, slightly better than the figure for the two neighboring states.
Building permit activity in Delaware is running ahead of the nation; That is also true in New Jersey, but not in Pennsylvania. Manufacturing employment declined in Delaware and Pennsylvania but showed an increase in New Jersey. Some clouds hover over the Delaware economy, due to the continuing turmoil at DuPont Co., which has shed its Performance Chemical business Chemours and recently saw its CEO step down. A search is on for a successor to Ellen Kullman, who guided the company through the recession, but saw pressure from activist shareholder Nelson Peltz to improve the company’s stock price.
That led to a bruising battle for board seats. DuPont prevailed, but Kullman saw earnings dragged down by weakness in agriculture and a strong dollar.
There are fears that the company might move its headquarters out of the state after more than 200 years.
Also, the state’s job growth rate appears to be slowing down, based on recent figures. At times, last year, Delaware ranked near the top in the nation when it came to job growth.
The state’s unemployment rate now matches the national figure after traditionally running below the national percentage.
At the same time some employers are adding higher paying jobs, one example being JPMorgan Chase. (See story, this edition).
The territory of the Federal Reserve bank includes the entire state of Delaware and portions of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. It is one of the smallest Federal Reserve banks in terms of territory and population.
The bank is headed by former University of Delaware President Patrick Harker.
