Delaware’s rising unemployment and shrinking workforce signal deeper issues that can’t be ignored. With tens of thousands missing from the labor force and a critical housing shortage, slow permitting processes are holding back growth. Learn how targeted federal and state reforms could unlock jobs, housing, and opportunity across the state.

Delaware’s 2025 labor data reveals a troubling paradox: employment rose while unemployment increased. A growing labor force outpaced job creation, leaving more people competing for fewer private-sector jobs. Nearly all employment gains came from healthcare, while manufacturing and other market-driven sectors declined, raising concerns about economic diversity and Delaware’s ability to support an aging population.

Delaware’s decision to decouple from federal accelerated depreciation is being framed as budget protection, but in practice it functions as a quiet tax increase on investment. Accelerated depreciation is not a bonus or windfall—it simply allows businesses to recover costs sooner. By slowing deductions for capital equipment and R&D, Delaware raises the effective cost of investing, weakens competitiveness, and signals policy uncertainty at a time when capital can easily move el

Delaware’s $400 million budget shortfall isn’t the result of federal tax changes—it’s the outcome of years of unchecked state spending. As the Caesar Rodney Institute explains, Dover’s leaders have expanded budgets through off-book appropriations and relied on temporary federal aid to mask structural problems. With surpluses fading, Delaware faces a fiscal crisis of its own making, demanding real reform—not blame-shifting to Washington.