Delaware’s jobless rate drops to 4.2 percent

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Jobless rate year

Delaware’s unemployment rate dropped to 4.2 percent in April, down from 4.4 percent in March and 4.9 percent in April 2015.

The figures come from the monthly report from the Delaware Department of Labor.

The 4.2 percent is well below the national jobless rate of 5 percent.

However,  other  data points to a slowdown in job growth in Delaware, a reflection of the trend seen elsewhere in the nation.

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In April, Delaware’s seasonally adjusted nonfarm employment was 460,000 up from 458,600 in March 2016. Since April 2015, Delaware’s total nonfarm jobs have increased by a net gain of 15,700 a rise of 3.5 percent. By contrast,  jobs growth during that period increased 1.9 percent.

April’s job gains and an upward revision of 600 jobs in March put Delaware’s 12-month job growth at 15,700 net new jobs. This 3.5 percent job growth, as measured by a  monthly survey of business establishments, is the fastest in the state since 1999.

Another measurement, based on a separate survey of households in the state is showing a gain of 20,300 employed state residents, an annual growth rate of 4.6 percent.  The figure was matched in January and February last year, but before that we have to go back to 1988 for employment growth exceeding that level, the Labor Department reported.

However, the more reliable  payroll data, which had 12-month job gains of over 11,000 jobs mid-year, fell to a gain of 7,600 jobs by December, a 1.8 percent growth rate.

The use of survey data, in the past couple of years, has led  to the state seeing a rise in jobless rates during part of the year. Once the adjustments from payroll data are factored in, the jobless rate  has dropped.

Along the way, critics of the Markell administration have used the rising unemployment rates  to make the case that the state’s economy is misfiring.

 

 

 

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