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

“Unemployment remains low and employment levels are strong across the state,” said Commissioner of Labor John H. Albin.  “The Department of Labor is continuously developing new ways to assist individuals with their employment needs.  NDOL job centers continue to assist workers with filing for Disaster Unemployment Assistance, finding current job openings on NEworks.nebraska.gov, and making connections to employment resources.” 

Nonfarm employment was 1,012,607 in March, down 1,172 over the year and up 2,396 over the month. Private industries with the most growth year over year were financial activities (up 1,449) and education and health services (up 739). Month to month, the largest gains were seen in trade, transportation, and utilities (up 1,628), mining and construction (up 609), and education and health (up 553).  

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

April 2019 Nebraska data will be published Friday, May 17.  Benchmarked 2014 to 2018 Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) program data will be available later today at NEworks.nebraska.gov.  Benchmarked 2014 to 2018 Current Employment Statistics (CES) program data is currently available on NEworks. 

For more March 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.