Jobless rate remains steady at 4.5 percent

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Delaware’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in January 2018 was 4.5 percent, unchanged from December 2017 as the state continued to trail the nation as a whole in job performance.

The Delaware Department of Labor reported  21,500 unemployed Delawareans in January 2018 compared to 21,900 in January 2017.

The US unemployment rate was 4.1 percent in January 2018, unchanged from December 2017. In January 2017 the US unemployment rate was 4.8 percent, while Delaware’s rate was 4.6 percent.

In January 2018, seasonally adjusted nonfarm employment was 457,600, up from 455,500 in December 2017.

Since January 2017, Delaware’s total nonfarm jobs have increased by a net gain of  800, an increase of 0.2 percent. Nationally, jobs during that period increased 1.5 percent.

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Those hoping for an upward revision of employment numbers were disappointed.

Unlike most recent years, this year’s revisions from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for Delaware were relatively small.

 On the household side, the gain in employed residents for all of 2017 was reduced from 3,700 to 3,200.

 The previously reported increase of 1,500 unemployed residents was revised to a decrease of 100.

 The state’s unemployment rate was smoothed and reduced in most months, bringing Delaware’s annual unemployment rate down to 4.6 percent from 4.7 percent.

In the current year, things are starting out well, with an increase of 700 employed residents, an unemployment rate remaining at 4.5%, and 2,300 net new jobs at employers in the state.

Some caution is warranted, however: over the past seven years, initial January job changes averaging 1,800 jobs were eventually revised to 700, with four of those revisions moving the job change in the opposite direction.

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