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

“October continued the trend of employment highs,” said Commissioner of Labor John H. Albin. “Lincoln and Omaha both reached new highs for non-farm jobs, while statewide the total non-farm job count has remained above 1 million since February of 2017.” 

Nonfarm employment was 1,039,493, up 15,953 over the year and up 2,867 over the month. Private industries with the most growth year over year were professional and business services (up 4,962), manufacturing (up 4,384), and leisure and hospitality (up 3,764). Month to month, the largest gains were seen in education and health services (up 1,319), trade, transportation and utilities (up 1,201), and professional and business services (up 924).

The national seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for October was 3.7 percent, unchanged from the September 2018 rate of 3.7 percent and down 0.4 percentage points from the October 2017 rate of 4.1 percent.

For more October 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.

November 2018 data is scheduled for release on Friday, December 21.