Continued improvement for Delaware’s unemployment rate

Delaware’s unemployment rate dropped slightly in April.

State officials are reporting an April unemployment rate of 5.8 percent, which compares to a rate 5.9 percent in March. The state Department of Labor reports that there were 25,700 unemployed Delawareans in April, compared to 26,200 March.

Looking back at April 2013, there were 30,100 Delaware residents out of work.

Over the past year, the median amount of time workers were on unemployment was 16 weeks. Nearly 30 percent of unemployed workers were without a job for more than a year. From 2012 to 2013, the median duration of unemployment was 23.7 weeks, with 30.6 percent of workers unemployed for more than 12 months.

Before the 2008 recession hit, the average amount of time spent on unemployment was drastically lower. In 2006, the median length of unemployment was just 9.4 weeks and only 8.9 percent of workers were unemployed for more than a year.

Locally, Wilmington still has the state’s highest rate of unemployment at 7.7 percent, but that number is down from the March rate of 8.2 percent. Dover comes in right behind Wilmington with an unemployment rate of 7.4 percent, down from 7.7 percent in March. 

Newark fares much better, with an unemployment rate of 4.9 percent, up 0.1 percent from March. Unlike the statewide unemployment rate, the local area rates are not adjusted seasonally to account for typical fluctuations in employment.