Monthly State Unemployment Rate Stable in February

Release Date: 3/22/2019

The Nebraska Department of Labor (NDOL) announced today that Nebraska’s preliminary unemployment rate for February was 2.8 percent, seasonally adjusted. The rate was unchanged from the January 2019 rate of 2.8 percent and is down 0.1 percentage points from the February 2018 rate of 2.9 percent.

“For the second time this year, Nebraska’s labor force employment has reached a record level,” said Commissioner of Labor John H. Albin. “Department of Labor job centers are working to support high employment levels by connecting workers and companies with resources and programs across the state, including resources for those impacted by the flooding.”

Nonfarm employment was 1,010,893, up 3,787 over the year and up 987 over the month. Private industries with the most growth year over year were education and health services (up 1,168), financial activities (up 1,072), and leisure and hospitality (up 1,008). Month to month, the largest gains were seen in education and health (up 1,425), professional and business services (up 1,211), and manufacturing (up 741).

The national seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for February was 3.8 percent, down 0.2 percentage points from the January 2019 rate of 4.0 percent and down 0.3 percentage points from the February 2018 rate of 4.1 percent.

March 2019 Nebraska data will be published Friday, April 19. February 2018 unemployment data is provided for comparison purposes only. Statewide and substate 2014-2018 benchmarked labor force data will be published on Friday April 19. 2017 and 2018 benchmarked nonfarm employment data is currently available. Benchmarked nonfarm employment for years prior to 2017 will be published on Friday, April 19. Benchmarking is the annual process of aligning estimated data from the Current Employment Statistics (CES) program with known employment numbers from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) program. It is a necessary step in ensuring the data released by the NDOL is of the highest quality.

For more February 2019 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.

Prepared and distributed by Nebraska Department of Labor (NDOL). NDOL press releases are accessible at: dol.nebraska.gov.