Delaware’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in May 2020 soared to 15.8 percent, up from 14.9 percent in April 2020, the Delaware Department of Labor reported.
There were 74,800 unemployed Delawareans in May 2020 compared to 17,900 in May 2019.
The US unemployment rate was 13.3 percent in May 2020, down from 14.7 percent in April 2020. In May 2019, the US unemployment rate was 3.6 percent, while Delaware’s rate was 3.7 percent.
In May 2020, seasonally adjusted nonfarm employment was 392,300, up from 387,900 in April 2020.
Since May 2019, Delaware’s total nonfarm jobs have decreased by a net loss of 72,600, a decline of 15.5 percent. Nationally, jobs during that period declined 11.8 percent.
The figures are expected to fuel the debate over whether Delaware moved too slowly in allowing businesses to reopen, especially in view with the lower 13.3 national jobless rate.
At the same time, Delaware was a two-hour drive from the New York metro area, the epicenter of the virus.
Employment categories in Delaware saw declines across the board, led by a nearly 30,000 job loss in leisure and hospitality.
Separately, the U.s. Department of Labor listed states with the highest unemployment rates, based on June figures. The states with the highest rates were Nevada (24.2 percent ), Puerto Rico (21.1), Hawaii (20.2), New York (18.0), Michigan (17.6), Connecticut (16.3), California (16.2), Rhode Island (16.2), Louisiana (16.1), and Massachusetts (16.1).
The Delaware report was inadvertently released a day earlier, according to the Labor Department.
