Delaware’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for June fell below 4 percent for the first time in nearly a decade.
This comes as total employment and the percentage of people in the workforce declined.
The June jobless rate was 3.9 percent, down from four percent in May 2018, the Delaware Department of Labor reported.
The number of unemployed residents fell to 19,000 in June compared to 22,100 in June 2017.
The report also showed job losses in some key categories, such as financial services and retail-wholesale trade. However, job totals, especially in retail-wholesale, are subject to end of the year revisions that often move totals upward.
The nation’s unemployment rate was 4 percent in June, up from 3.8 percent in May. In June 2017, the US unemployment rate was 4.3 percent, while Delaware’s rate was 4.6 percent.
Four percent is generally considered to be full unemployment.
In June 2018, seasonally adjusted nonfarm employment was 459,900, down from 460,500 in May 2018.
Since June 2017, Delaware’s total nonfarm jobs have increased by 6,800, an increase of 1.5 percent. Nationally, jobs during that period increased 1.6 percent.
Last month marks the first time since February 2008 that Delaware’s unemployment rate has dropped below four percent.
The US rate rising from 3.8 percent to four percent in June, also marks the first time since February 2017 that Delaware’s rate is below the national rate.
Even so, the state is still some distance from its all-time low unemployment rate of 3 percent in the late 1980s. As of May, there were nine states with unemployment rates below three percent. Hawaii, at 2 percent, has the lowest rate in the nation.
While the current state unemployment rate is the same as the last peak in the economy, the labor force participation rate is much lower at 62.5 percent, compared to 66.3 percent in February 2008.
If the current labor participation rate was at 2008 levels, there would be an additional 28,000 Delawareans in the workforce.
