8-21-20

Rate is Second Lowest in the Nation

LINCOLN - The Nebraska Department of Labor (NDOL) announced today that Nebraska’s preliminary July unemployment rate is second lowest in the nation at 4.8 percent, seasonally adjusted. The rate is down 0.7 percentage points from the revised June 2020 rate of 5.5 percent and down 3.9 percent from the state’s highest unemployment rate during the pandemic, April’s 8.7 percent.  July’s rate is up 1.7 percentage points from the July 2019 rate of 3.1 percent. 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has temporarily suspended the data smoothing process in all states, which has contributed to greater volatility in the reported month over month changes. June's revision from 6.7 to 5.5 percent was the largest revision since the start of the pandemic.

“Nonfarm employment saw another significant increase from June to July, including growth in healthcare, leisure and hospitality and professional and business services,” said Commissioner of Labor John H. Albin. “New and continued unemployment claims also declined from June to July as workers returned to employment.” 

July preliminary total nonfarm employment (number of jobs) was 986,510, down by 40,112 over the year and up by 6,427 over the month. Month to month, leisure and hospitality was up 5,313, education and health services increased by 3,353, and professional and business services employment rose by 1,891. Year over year, education and health services was up 275.

The national seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for July is 10.2 percent, a decrease of 0.9 percentage points from the June 2020 rate of 11.1 percent and up 6.5 percentage points from the July 2019 rate of 3.7 percent.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) issued the following statement regarding claims data and unemployment estimates:

“Data users must be cautious about trying to compare or reconcile the UI claims data with the official unemployment figures gathered through the household survey. The unemployment data derived from the household survey in no way depend upon the eligibility for or receipt of UI benefits. In some cases, UI claims data exclude people who would be identified as unemployed in the household survey, like new entrants to the labor force with no prior work experience. In other cases, UI data may include individuals who do not meet the CPS definition of unemployment.”

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on employment and unemployment data can be found on the BLS website www.bls.gov/bls/bls-covid-19-questions-and-answers.htm  

August 2020 Nebraska data will be published Friday, September 18, 2020.

More NDOL press releases are accessible here: https://dol.nebraska.gov/PressRelease