As of this date there have been officially 290 COVID related deaths in Delaware out of a population of 982,000. This is a death rate of three one-hundred of one percent (.03%). There have been 7,870 confirmed COVID cases for an incidence rate of eight-tenth of one percent (.8%). The state gov...
Read MoreOfficially, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), unemployment is the percent of the labor force that is actively looking for employment and cannot find it. To be eligible for unemployment insuran...
Read MoreWhat will be the impact of the Covid-19 virus on Delaware's economy? There are two extreme views among economists regarding the U.S. economy. The first view anticipates a substantial recession similar to 2008-09. The second expects a severe dip in the second quarter of 2020 with a...
Read MoreAccording to the Wall Street Journal, Republican Ron DeSantis owes his gubernatorial victory in Florida to the support of about 100,000 African American women who were advocates for school choice. Of the roughly 650,000 black women who voted in the Florida election, 18% chose Mr. DeSantis. Could thi...
Read MoreIf the objective of Delaware’s economic development efforts is jobs, the available data may provide a logic for allocating development resources. Over any particular year, the net change in employment comes from business start-up and expansion minus business closures and contrac...
Read MoreDelaware is one of just five states that levies a gross receipts tax (GRT). A GRT is an excise tax on the gross revenues of a company regardless of whether that company has profits or losses. Public finance economists view the GRT as inefficient and unsound. It double or triple taxes bu...
Read MoreAccording to the leading index calculated by the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank, Delaware can expect a contraction in the state’s economy in the second quarter of 2020. Is there any reason for concern? Each month the Phila Fed estimates leading indexes for all the states and th...
Read MoreIt took New Castle County (NCC) until 2015 for employment to return to the high water mark hit in 2007. Since 2015 the NCC employment has only inched forward at 0.6% per annum. And the Delaware Department of Labor projects this modest growth rate to continue through 2026. To his credit ...
Read MoreState Senator Darius Brown has proposed additional minimum wage increases on top of the increase from the last legislative session. These proposed increases are substantial, raising the Delaware minimum wage from $9.25 to $11.00 in 2020 and then adding $1.00 every year after until a $15.00 minimum w...
Read MoreProductivity is typically measured as the amount of output (the market value) of the goods or services each worker in an industry produces over a year. Based upon output per worker or productivity, one can identify which industries will pay high wages and maintain competitive prices. Ob...
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