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News Release Information

20-1086-PHI
Friday, June 11, 2021

Contacts Technical information: Media contact:

County Employment and Wages in the Delmarva Peninsula – Fourth Quarter 2020

Delmarva Peninsula Employment Decreased Over the Year

In December 2020, 609,254 workers were employed on the Delmarva Peninsula, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Alexandra Hall Bovee, the Bureau’s regional commissioner, noted that from December 2019 to December 2020, employment on the peninsula decreased 4.3 percent, less than the 6.1-percent decline nationwide. New Castle County, DE, with 279,928 workers, had the highest employment level among the area’s 14 counties and accounted for nearly half of the jobs on the Delmarva Peninsula in December 2020. Employment levels in the remaining Delaware counties, Sussex (79,607) and Kent (66,215), ranked second and third on the peninsula. (See table A.)

Table A. Covered employment and wages in the United States and counties on the Delmarva Peninsula, fourth quarter 2020
Area Employment December 2020 Average weekly wages Fourth Quarter 2020 (1)
Level Rank Level Rank

United States (2)

140,881,300 -- $1,339 --

Delmarva (3)

609,254 -- 1,170 --

Kent, DE

66,215 3 1,025 3

New Castle, DE

279,928 1 1,389 1

Sussex, DE

79,607 2 974 8

Caroline, MD

9,315 11 998 6

Cecil, MD

37,851 5 1,021 4

Dorchester, MD

11,969 10 968 9

Kent, MD

7,044 12 962 10

Queen Anne's, MD

14,540 8 958 11

Somerset, MD

6,073 13 1,084 2

Talbot, MD

16,273 7 1,004 5

Wicomico, MD

44,291 4 997 7

Worcester, MD

20,315 6 825 13

Accomack, VA

11,975 9 940 12

Northampton, VA

3,858 14 780 14

Footnotes:
(1) Average weekly wages were calculated using unrounded data.
(2) Totals for the United States do not include data for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
(3) Data for the Delmarva Peninsula were calculated for this release using published employment and wage levels for each county on the peninsula.

Note: Data are preliminary. Covered employment and wages includes workers covered by Unemployment Insurance (UI) and Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees (UCFE) programs.

The three Delaware counties had the highest employment levels on the Delmarva Peninsula and accounted for 70 percent of the area’s workers in December 2020. Maryland’s nine counties employed 27 percent of the workers on the peninsula and Virginia’s two counties accounted for the remaining 3 percent. Following the three Delaware counties, two other counties had employment over 30,000—Wicomico (44,291) and Cecil (37,851), both in Maryland. Located at the southern tip of the peninsula, Northampton, VA, had the lowest employment at 3,858; Maryland’s southernmost county, Somerset, was next with 6,073.

Workers on the Delmarva Peninsula earned an average of $1,170 per week in the fourth quarter of 2020—$169 below the national average of $1,339. In addition to employing the most workers on the peninsula, New Castle, DE, also had the highest average weekly wage, at $1,389. New Castle was the only county on the Delmarva Peninsula with an average weekly wage above the national average; the second-highest average wage on the peninsula was $1,084 per week in Somerset, MD. Northampton, VA, at $780, had the lowest average weekly wage on the Delmarva Peninsula, followed by Worcester, MD, at $825.

Additional statistics and other information

The Delmarva Peninsula, located on the East Coast of the United States, comprises portions of three states―Delaware, 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.

For additional information about quarterly employment and wages data, please read the Technical Note or visit the QCEW Web site at www.bls.gov/cew/.

Employment and Wages Annual Averages Online features comprehensive information by detailed industry on establishments, employment, and wages for the nation and all states. The 2019 edition of this publication was published in September 2020. Tables and additional content from the 2019 edition of Employment and Wages Annual Averages Online are available at www.bls.gov/cew/publications/employment-and-wages-annual-averages/2019/home.htm. The 2020 edition of Employment and Wages Annual Averages Online will be available in September 2021. 

The County Employment and Wages release for first quarter 2021 is scheduled to be released on Wednesday, August 18, 2021. The County Employment and Wages full data update for first quarter 2021 is scheduled to be released on Wednesday, September 1, 2021.

QCEW Imputation Issue Caused by Pandemic-Related Challenges

In the spring of 2020, BLS modified its imputation process for QCEW to be more responsive to current economic conditions. While continuing work to improve this process, BLS made an unintended data processing error. This error affected data for the second, third, and fourth quarters of 2020. BLS has analyzed this issue and has determined that the impact on QCEW employment was negligible at the statewide level. In smaller areas and industries, revisions may be larger than usual. Wage data were not affected. Following the usual QCEW practice, these data will be revised and corrected with the full data update on September 1, 2021.

For more information on QCEW imputation methodology, see www.bls.gov/cew/additional-resources/imputation-methodology.htm.


Technical Note

Average weekly wage data by county are compiled under the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program, also known as the ES-202 program. The data are derived from summaries of employment and total pay of workers covered by state and federal unemployment insurance (UI) legislation and provided by State Workforce Agencies (SWAs). The average weekly wage values are calculated by dividing quarterly total wages by the average of the three monthly employment levels of those covered by UI programs. The result is then divided by 13, the number of weeks in a quarter. It is to be noted, therefore, that over-the-year wage changes for geographic areas may reflect shifts in the composition of employment by industry, occupation, and such other factors as hours of work. Thus, wages may vary among counties, metropolitan areas, or states for reasons other than changes in the average wage level. Data for all states, Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs), counties, and the nation are available on the BLS web site at www.bls.gov/cew. However, data in QCEW press releases have been revised and may not match the data contained on the Bureau’s web site.

QCEW data are not designed as a time series. QCEW data are simply the sums of individual establishment records reflecting the number of establishments that exist in a county or industry at a point in time. Establishments can move in or out of a county or industry for a number of reasons–some reflecting economic events, others reflecting administrative changes.

The preliminary QCEW data presented in this release may differ from data released by the individual states as well as from the data presented on the BLS web site. These potential differences result from the states’ continuing receipt, review and editing of UI data over time. On the other hand, differences between data in this release and the data found on the BLS web site are the result of adjustments made to improve over-the-year comparisons. Specifically, these adjustments account for administrative (noneconomic) changes such as a correction to a previously reported location or industry classification. Adjusting for these administrative changes allows users to more accurately assess changes of an economic nature (such as a firm moving from one county to another or changing its primary economic activity) over a 12-month period. Currently, adjusted data are available only from BLS press releases.

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

 

Last Modified Date: Friday, June 11, 2021