Cindy Gonzalez
LINCOLN — Nebraska’s unemployment rate has reached 3% according to the latest labor report, up from 2.6% a year ago.
The last time the state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was at 3% was in December 2020. The rate for January was 2.9%.
Prior to the pandemic, Nebraska’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was consistently around 3.0%, ranging from 2.8% to 3.2%.
Nebraska’s preliminary unemployment rate still remains among the lowest nationally, tying for fifth lowest in the recently released data that reflects February. The national seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for February is 4.1%, up from 3.9% a year earlier.
Labor Commissioner Katie Thurber said the uptick appears to be driven by an increase in the state labor force.
“When someone enters the labor force and begins searching for work, they are classified as unemployed until they find a job,” she said. “Both new entrants and re-entrants into the labor force were up in February, and Nebraska’s labor force is now at an all-time high of 1,077,890 participants.”
The number of employed and unemployed people in the labor force are based on a U.S. Census Bureau survey on employment status. Both individuals who are claiming unemployment benefits and those who are not claiming the benefits can be counted as unemployed based on their survey responses.
Those not working or seeking a job are not considered part of the labor force and are not included in the unemployment rate calculation.
The number of filled nonfarm jobs was 1,048,487 in February, up 6,569 over a year earlier. Private industries with the most growth over the past year were private education and health services (up 5,889 jobs) and mining and construction (up 1,803 jobs).
