Unemployment on the Delmarva Peninsula by County: June 2008 (PDF)

In June, Talbot County, Md., reported the lowest county unemployment rate on the Delmarva Peninsula, 3.9 percent.  The next lowest rates were reported in Queen Anne’s County, Md. (4.0 percent), Sussex County, Del. (4.1 percent), and Kent County, Md. (4.2 percent), according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor.  Sheila Watkins, the Bureau’s regional commissioner, noted that only two counties registered unemployment rates above the national average of 5.7 percent—Somerset, Md., and Dorchester, Md., with rates of 6.1 and 6.0 percent, respectively.  The remaining 12 counties registered jobless rates that were lower than that of the nation.  (See chart A.) 

Chart A.  Unemployment rates for the United States and counties on the Delmarva Peninsula, June 2008, not seasonally adjusted

All 14 counties located on the Delmarva Peninsula had unemployment rates that were higher in June 2008 than a year earlier.  Five counties recorded rate increases larger than the 1.0-percentage point national increase:  Northampton, Va. (+1.5 points); Cecil, Md. and Accomack, Va. (+1.4 points each); Sussex, Del. (+1.3 points); and Kent, Del. (+1.2 points).  (See table A.)

While the June 2008 unemployment rates on the Delmarva Peninsula were higher across the board than those of June 2007, only four counties have remained below the levels reached in June 2002, seven months after the end of the last recession.  The county with the largest net unemployment rate increase was Accomack County in Virginia, where the rate rose from 3.7 percent in June 2002 to 5.1 percent in June 2008.  Kent County, Md., reported the largest rate decrease during the same period, from 4.8 percent in June 2002 to 4.2 percent in June 2008.

Unemployment rates in the 14 counties on the Delmarva Peninsula were generally higher in June than those of the individual states in which the counties were located.  Overall, the three states recorded similar rates—4.4 percent in Delaware and 4.2 percent in both Maryland and Virginia.  On the peninsula, however, unemployment rates in Virginia’s two counties were both well above the Commonwealth’s 4.2-percent rate.  In Maryland, six of the nine Delmarva counties had jobless rates exceeding the State’s 4.2-percent figure.  Delaware’s three counties are all part of the Delmarva Peninsula, so no other county impacts the State’s jobless rate.  Sussex County, was the only one to report an unemployment rate below that of the State in June 2008.

Technical Notes

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.

Method of estimation.  Estimates for 48 of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale metropolitan division, New York City, and the balances of California and New York State are produced using estimating equations based on regression techniques.  This method, which underwent substantial enhancement at the beginning of 2005, utilizes data from several sources, including the CPS, the CES, and state unemployment insurance (UI) programs.  Estimates for census regions are obtained by summing the model-based estimates for the component divisions and then calculating the unemployment rate.  Each month, census division estimates are controlled to national totals; state estimates are then controlled to their respective division totals.  Estimates for Puerto Rico are derived from a monthly household survey similar to the CPS. A detailed description of the estimation procedures is available from BLS upon request.

Annual revisions.  Labor force and unemployment data for prior years reflect adjustments made at the end of each year.  The adjusted estimates reflect updated population data from the U.S. Census Bureau, any revisions in the other data sources, and model reestimation.  In most years, historical data for the most recent five years (both seasonally adjusted and not seasonally adjusted) are revised near the beginning of each calendar year, prior to or coincident with the release of January estimates.

Area definitions.  The substate area data published in this release reflect the standards and definitions established by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget on November 20, 2007.  A detailed list of the geographic definitions is available on the Internet at www.bls.gov/lau/lausmsa.htm .

Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request.  Voice phone:  (202) 691-5200; TDD message referral phone:  1-800-877-8339.

For personal assistance or further information on the Local Area Unemployment Statistics data, as well as other Bureau data, contact the Mid-Atlantic Information Office at 215-597-3282 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET.  Information on the Local Area Unemployment Statistics program and other surveys and programs is available on our Web site at www.bls.gov/ro3/ .