Delaware’s unemployment rate in May fell to four percent, down two-tenths of one percent from April, the Delaware Department of Labor reported.
The U.S. unemployment rate was 3.8 percent in May down from 3.9 percent in April. In May 2017, the US unemployment rate was 4.3 percent, while Delaware’s rate was 4.6 percent.
In May 2018, seasonally adjusted nonfarm employment was 460,600, up from 460,000 in April. Since May 2017, Delaware’s total nonfarm jobs have increased by a net gain of 7,900, up 1.7 percent. Nationally, jobs during that period increased 1.6 percent.
In its monthly jobs report, the Labor Department took a look behind the numbers and found high school graduates and dropouts have comparable unemployment rates.
The number of unemployed state residents fell below 20,000 for the first time in a decade. The last time the rate was this low was May 2008, when 19,449 were reported to be unemployed.
To be counted as unemployed, one must be willing, able, and actively seeking work.
Just over half of those unemployed are male, but over the past year their average period of unemployment was much shorter, 19.1 weeks vs. 26.1 weeks for women.
Fifty- four percent of the unemployed are white, 35 percent African-American, and 10 percent Hispanic.
Among the unemployed over the age of 24, about 5,000 are high school graduates who never attended college, and just under 5,000 have an associate’s degree or some college without a degree. This group has the highest unemployment rate at 4.7 percent.
About 3,000 of the unemployed have a bachelor’s degree or higher. Their unemployment rate is 2 percent. Slightly more than 1,000 of the unemployed did not graduate high school, the smallest group overall. They have an unemployment rate of 4.1 percent, the same as high school graduates without college.
