Delaware adds jobs – unemployment rate takes a dip

While nationally unemployment declined by 0.3%, Delaware unemployment is down 0.5% for the year.

Good news for Delaware employment trends – according to the Delaware Department of Labor, the number of Delawareans employed went from 61.3% in December 2014 to 62.0% in June 2015.

Drilling further into the details of what that means to Delawareans, since June 2014, Delaware’s total nonfarm jobs have increased by a net gain of +8,800, a rise of 2.0%.

According to Dr. George Sharpley from the Delaware Department of Labor, year-over-year growth in the leisure and hospitality super sector comes entirely from accommodations and food services.

“Accommodation (hotels, etc.) added 400 jobs, and Food Services gained 2,400. Sussex County employment in food services is about the same as last year; most of the growth has been in New Castle County, with the rest in Kent County. As most of the state’s total job gains in recent years have been in New Castle County, it stands to reason spending is up most there as well,” Dr. Sharpley said in a statement.

There is not one single region of the state benefiting by job growth. As this graph from the report shows, since 2014, unemployment numbers are down across Delaware.

 

 

 

 

The Delaware Department of Labor published updated employment numbers through June 2015. The number of Delawareans employed went from 61.3% in December 2014 to 62.0% in June 2015.

The report noted that, compared with the rest of the US, Delaware has a much larger 65+ population (22% to 18.5%), the state has more residents between the ages of 16-64 working – 69.9% in Delaware vs. 69.2% nationally.