LINCOLN- The Nebraska Department of Labor (NDOL) announced today that Nebraska’s preliminary unemployment rate for December 2014 is 2.9 percent, seasonally adjusted. The jobless rate is down 0.2 percentage points from the November rate of 3.1 percent and down 0.7 percentage points from the December 2013 rate of 3.6 percent.

 

“With an unemployment rate of 2.9%, Nebraska’s economy continues to show strong growth,” said Commissioner of Labor John H. Albin.  “This is the state’s lowest December unemployment rate since 2006.”

 

Total nonfarm employment reached 993,361 in December, up by 7,506 compared to December 2013. Private industries with the most growth year over year were leisure and hospitality (up 3,153), education and health services (up 2,508) and financial activities (up 1,605). Month to month, the most growth was seen in trade, transportation and utilities (up 273), and education and health services (up 271).

 

The seasonally-adjusted national unemployment rate in December was 5.6 percent, down 0.2 percent points from the November rate and down 1.1 percentage points from the December 2013 rate of 6.7 percent.

 

Due to the start of the benchmark process, January 2015 data is scheduled for release Tuesday, March 17 and February data on Friday, March 27. The 2010-2013 benchmarked data will be published Tuesday, April 21.

Benchmarking is the annual process of aligning estimated data from the Current Employment Statistics (CES) programs with known employment numbers from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) data. It is a necessary step in ensuring the data released by the NDOL is of the highest quality.