Department of Labor Logo United States Department of Labor
Dot gov

The .gov means it's official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you're on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

News Release Information

19-1970-PHI
Thursday, November 07, 2019

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:

Unemployment on the Delmarva Peninsula by County – September 2019

Unemployment Rates in 10 of 14 Counties Declined Over the Year

In September, Somerset County, MD, had the highest unemployment rate on the Delmarva Peninsula at 5.4 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Sheila Watkins, the Bureau’s regional commissioner, noted that 10 of the 14 Delmarva Peninsula counties had jobless rates higher than the 3.3-percent U.S. average. The four remaining counties had jobless rates ranging from 3.1 percent in Caroline, MD, to 2.7 percent in Accomack, VA. (See chart 1 and chart 2. All data in this release are not seasonally adjusted; accordingly, over-the-year analysis is used throughout.)

Ten of the 14 counties on the Delmarva Peninsula had unemployment rate decreases from September 2018 to September 2019, with the declines in six area counties equal to or greater than the national decline of 0.3 percentage point. (See table A.) Northampton County, VA, had the largest over-the-year decrease at 0.8 percentage point. The three Delaware counties—Kent, New Castle, and Sussex—had rate increases over the year, while the jobless rate in Queen Anne’s County, MD, was unchanged since September 2018.

Table A. Unemployment rates for the United States, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and counties on the Delmarva Peninsula, not seasonally adjusted

Area
Back
data
Unemployment ratesChange from
Sep
2017
Sep
2018
Sep
2019(1)
Sep 2017
to
Sep 2019(1)
Sep 2018
to
Sep 2019(1)

United States

Go to web page with historical data for series LNU04000000
4.13.63.3-0.8-0.3

Delaware

Go to web page with historical data for series LAUST100000000000003
4.33.63.8-0.50.2

Kent

Go to web page with historical data for series LAUCN100010000000003
4.73.94.2-0.50.3

New Castle

Go to web page with historical data for series LAUCN100030000000003
4.43.63.8-0.60.2

Sussex

Go to web page with historical data for series LAUCN100050000000003
4.03.33.4-0.60.1

Maryland

Go to web page with historical data for series LAUST240000000000003
4.03.63.4-0.6-0.2

Caroline

Go to web page with historical data for series LAUCN240110000000003
3.83.33.1-0.7-0.2

Cecil

Go to web page with historical data for series LAUCN240150000000003
4.53.93.6-0.9-0.3

Dorchester

Go to web page with historical data for series LAUCN240190000000003
5.14.34.2-0.9-0.1

Kent

Go to web page with historical data for series LAUCN240290000000003
3.93.63.5-0.4-0.1

Queen Anne's

Go to web page with historical data for series LAUCN240350000000003
3.52.92.9-0.60.0

Somerset

Go to web page with historical data for series LAUCN240390000000003
6.25.95.4-0.8-0.5

Talbot

Go to web page with historical data for series LAUCN240410000000003
3.63.22.9-0.7-0.3

Wicomico

Go to web page with historical data for series LAUCN240450000000003
5.04.44.1-0.9-0.3

Worcester

Go to web page with historical data for series LAUCN240470000000003
5.34.84.7-0.6-0.1

Virginia

Go to web page with historical data for series LAUST510000000000003
3.52.72.5-1.0-0.2

Accomack

Go to web page with historical data for series LAUCN510010000000003
3.93.22.7-1.2-0.5

Northampton

Go to web page with historical data for series LAUCN511310000000003
4.64.33.5-1.1-0.8

Footnotes
(1) Data for Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and counties on the Delmarva Peninsula are preliminary for the most recent month.

The unemployment rates in all 14 Delmarva Peninsula counties in September 2019 were lower than in September 2017. Accomack County, VA, had the largest two-year jobless rate decrease (-1.2 percentage points). Eight counties had unemployment rate declines that were smaller than the nation’s 0.8-percentage point rate decline, with the smallest decline in Kent County, MD (-0.4 point).

The Metropolitan Area Employment and Unemployment news release for October is scheduled to be released on Wednesday, November 27, 2019, at 10:00 a.m. (EDT).


Technical Note

This release presents unemployment rate data for states and counties from the Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) program, a federal-state cooperative endeavor.

Definitions. The labor force and unemployment data are based on the same concepts and definitions as those used for the official national estimates obtained from the Current Population Survey (CPS), a sample survey of households that is conducted for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) by the U.S. Census Bureau. The LAUS program measures employment and unemployment on a place-of-residence basis. The universe for each is the civilian noninstitutional population 16 years of age and over. Employed persons are those who did any work at all for pay or profit in the reference week (the week including the 12th of the month) or worked 15 hours or more without pay in a family business or farm, plus those not working who had a job from which they were temporarily absent, whether or not paid, for such reasons as labor-management dispute, illness, or vacation. Unemployed persons are those who were not employed during the reference week (based on the definition above), had actively looked for a job sometime in the 4-week period ending with the reference week, and were currently available for work; persons on layoff expecting recall need not be looking for work to be counted as unemployed. The labor force is the sum of employed and unemployed persons. The unemployment rate is the number of unemployed as a percent of the labor force.

Methods of Estimation. The LAUS program is a hierarchy of non-survey methodologies for indirectly estimating employment and unemployment in states and local areas. Statewide data are produced through a modeling technique that uses estimates of payroll jobs from the Current Employment Statistics survey and unemployment insurance claims counts from the state workforce agencies to mitigate volatility in the direct CPS tabulations of employment and unemployment, respectively. Data for counties are developed through a building-block approach and adjusted proportionally to state model-based totals. For multi-county areas, such as the metropolitan areas and metropolitan divisions delineated by the Office of Management and Budget, estimates are summed from the data for their component counties. Estimates for cities and towns are produced through a disaggregation technique. A detailed description of the LAUS estimation procedures is available in chapter 4 of the BLS Handbook of Methods at www.bls.gov/opub/hom/lau/pdf/lau.pdf.

Annual revisions. Labor force and unemployment data for prior years reflect adjustments made at the end of each year, usually implemented with January estimates. The adjusted estimates reflect updated population data from the U.S. Census Bureau, any revisions in the other data sources, and model reestimation. All substate estimates are reestimated and adjusted to add to the revised model-based estimates.

The Delmarva Peninsula, located on the east coast of the United States, comprises Delaware and portions of Maryland and Virginia. The Delmarva Peninsula includes Kent, New Castle, and Sussex Counties in Delaware; Caroline, Cecil, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s, Somerset, Talbot, Wicomico, and Worcester Counties in Maryland; and Accomack and Northampton Counties in Virginia.

Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Federal Relay Service: (800) 877-8339.

  Chart 2. Unemployment rates for counties on the Delmarva Peninsula, not seasonally adjusted, September 2019

 

Last Modified Date: Thursday, November 07, 2019