LINCOLN- The Nebraska Department of Labor (NDOL) announced today that Nebraska’s preliminary unemployment rate for February 2015 is 2.7 percent, seasonally adjusted. The jobless rate is down 0.2 percentage points from the January rate of 2.9 percent and down 0.7 percentage points from the February 2014 rate of 3.4 percent.

“Nebraska’s nonfarm employment is up nearly 11,000 over last year,” said Commissioner of Labor John H. Albin.  “The Lincoln, Omaha and Grand Island metropolitan statistical areas all experienced increases in employment over last year.”

Year over year, education and health services is up 3,430, leisure and hospitality is up 2,080, and other services is up 1,920. Month to month, the most growth was seen in leisure and hospitality (up 1,362), professional and business services (up 612) and education and health services (up 254).

The seasonally-adjusted national unemployment rate in February was 5.5 percent, down 0.2 percentage points from the January rate of 5.7 percent.  Over the year, the rate is down by 1.2 percentage points from the February 2014 rate of 6.7 percent.

March 2015 data and all benchmarked data will be published Tuesday, April 21.