May 21, 2021

Rate Once Again Tied for Lowest in the Nation

LINCOLN - The Nebraska Department of Labor (NDOL) announced today that Nebraska’s preliminary unemployment rate for April 2021 is 2.8 percent, seasonally adjusted. The rate is down 0.1 percentage points from the March 2021 revised rate of 2.9 percent and down 4.6 percentage points from the March 2020 rate of 7.4 percent.

“Nebraska’s nonfarm employment is back over a million and trending up,” said Commissioner of Labor John H. Albin.  “The last time Nebraska’s unemployment rate hit 2.8 was in the second and third quarters of 2018.”

Nonfarm employment was 1,007,851 in April, up 8,762 over the month and up 70,509 over the year. Private industries with the most growth month to month were leisure and hospitality (up 3,216); mining and construction (up 2,601); and professional and business services (up 2,543).  Private industries with the most growth year to year were leisure and hospitality (up 28,549); trade, transportation, and utilities (up 12,246); and education and health (up 11,320).

There are currently nearly 40,000 job openings listed on NEworks.nebraska.gov. 

The national seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for April 2021 is 6.1 percent, up 0.1 percentage points from the March 2021 rate of 6 percent, and down 8.6 percentage points from the April 2020 rate of 14.7 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  

May 2021 Nebraska data will be published Wednesday, June 23. 

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