The Nebraska Department of Labor (NDOL) announced today that Nebraska’s preliminary unemployment rate for August was 2.8 percent, seasonally adjusted. The rate declined 0.1 percentage points from the July 2018 rate of 2.9 percent and is down 0.1 percentage points from the August 2017 rate of 2.9 percent.

“Nebraska’s seasonally adjusted employment reached another record high this month,” said Commissioner of Labor John H. Albin. “The non-seasonally adjusted employment level for the Lincoln metro area is the highest since 1990 when data was first collected for the metro area.”

Nonfarm employment was 1,032,536, up 15,402 over the year and down 264 over the month. Private industries with the most growth year over year were manufacturing (up 4,649), leisure and hospitality (up 4,156), and education and health services (up 3,552). Month to month, the largest gains were seen in leisure and hospitality (up 1,318), education and health services (up 690), and manufacturing (up 145).

The national seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for August was 3.9 percent, unchanged from the July 2018 rate of 3.9 percent and down 0.5 percentage points from the August 2017 rate of 4.4 percent.

For more August data, go to dol.nebraska.gov/InfoLink. Nonfarm employment data can be found at NEworks.nebraska.gov/CES and Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) data can be found at NEworks.nebraska.gov/LAUS.

September 2018 data is scheduled for release on Friday, October 19, 2018.