State Unemployment Rate Remains 3.1 Percent in December

Release Date: 1/24/2020

The Nebraska Department of Labor (NDOL) announced today that Nebraska’s preliminary unemployment rate for December was 3.1 percent, seasonally adjusted. The rate was unchanged from the November 2019 rate of 3.1 percent. The unemployment rate is up 0.3 percentage points from the December 2018 rate of 2.8 percent.

“2019 was full of historically high employment,” said Commissioner of Labor John H. Albin. “The number of workers employed in Nebraska’s labor force has been above 1 million since March of 2019.”

Nonfarm employment, a count of filled jobs in the state, was 1,042,933 in December, up by 15,649 over the year. Private industries with the most growth year over year were leisure and hospitality (up 3,801), professional and business services (up 3,475), and education and health (up 3,176). Month to month, the largest gains were seen in leisure and hospitality (up 1,108), education and health (up 681), and trade, transportation and utilities (up 678).

The national seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for December was 3.5 percent, unchanged from the November 2019 rate of 3.5 percent and down 0.4 percentage points from the December 2018 rate of 3.9 percent.

For more December 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.

Due to annual benchmarking, January 2020 data will be published Monday, March 16. February 2020 Nebraska data will be published Friday, March 27, 2020.