Delaware’s initial employment claims rose past the 19,000 mark at the end of March, according to figures from the U.S. Department of Labor.
As shown in the chart below, the state had been seeing weekly initial claims of less than 1,000 prior to mid-March.
At that time, measures aimed at limiting the spread of coronavirus were taken by Delaware Gov. John Carney that included closing restaurants to dining. The closings later extended to many nonessential retail stores and recently hotels.
Travel in Delaware also plunged at that time, with hotels seeing single-digit occupancy rates.
Nationally, 6.6 million initial claims were filed.
The advance nationally seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 5.1 percent for the week ending March 28, an increase of 3 percentage points from the previous week’s unrevised rate.
| State |
Filed week ended |
Initial Claims |
Reflecting Week Ended |
Continued Claims |
Covered Employment |
Insured Unemployment Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Delaware |
01/04/2020 |
875 |
12/28/2019 |
6,881 |
441,663 |
1.56 |
Delaware |
01/11/2020 |
1,107 |
01/04/2020 |
7,083 |
443,288 |
1.60 |
Delaware |
01/18/2020 |
830 |
01/11/2020 |
5,967 |
443,288 |
1.35 |
Delaware |
01/25/2020 |
674 |
01/18/2020 |
5,703 |
443,288 |
1.29 |
Delaware |
02/01/2020 |
622 |
01/25/2020 |
6,830 |
443,288 |
1.54 |
Delaware |
02/08/2020 |
608 |
02/01/2020 |
5,888 |
443,288 |
1.33 |
Delaware |
02/15/2020 |
610 |
02/08/2020 |
5,917 |
443,288 |
1.33 |
Delaware |
02/22/2020 |
632 |
02/15/2020 |
5,921 |
443,288 |
1.34 |
Delaware |
02/29/2020 |
524 |
02/22/2020 |
6,742 |
443,288 |
1.52 |
Delaware |
03/07/2020 |
518 |
02/29/2020 |
5,480 |
443,288 |
1.24 |
Delaware |
03/14/2020 |
472 |
03/07/2020 |
5,310 |
443,288 |
1.20 |
Delaware |
03/21/2020 |
10,776 |
03/14/2020 |
5,297 |
443,288 |
1.19 |
Delaware |
03/28/2020 |
19,137 |
03/21/2020 |
11,506 |
443,288 |
2.60 |
