LINCOLN- The Nebraska Department of Labor (NDOL) announced today that Nebraska’s preliminary unemployment rate for February was 3.2 percent, seasonally adjusted. The rate declined 0.1 percentage point from the January 2017 rate of 3.3 percent and is unchanged from the February 2016 rate.

“Several industry sectors showed healthy employment gains over-the-month,” said Commissioner of Labor, John H. Albin. “Nebraska’s total nonfarm jobs had the largest January to February percentage increase in the country according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.”

Statewide nonfarm employment for February 2017 was 1,009,110. The private industries with the most growth over the month were education and health services, leisure and hospitality, and professional and business services. Over the year, nonfarm employment gained 13,013 jobs, an increase of 1.3 percent.  

The national seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for February was 4.7 percent, down 0.1 percentage point from January and down 0.2 percentage points from the February 2016 rate of 4.9 percent.

March 2017 data and benchmarked labor force data will be published Friday, April 21. Benchmarked nonfarm employment data (Current Employment Statistics – CES) is now available on the NEworks website at http://NEworks.nebraska.gov/CES. Benchmarking is the annual process of aligning estimated data with known employment numbers from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW). It is a necessary step in ensuring the data released by the NDOL is of the highest quality.

Monthly State Unemployment Rate.pdf