LINCOLN - The Nebraska Department of Labor (NDOL) announced today that Nebraska’s preliminary unemployment rate for September 2021 is 2.0 percent, seasonally adjusted. The rate is a record low for Nebraska and tied with the nationwide record low. Unemployment data goes back to 1976, and only Hawaii (January 2020) and Connecticut (August 2020) have ever had rates this low. National unemployment rate rankings are available here: https://www.bls.gov/web/laus/laumstrk.htm.  The rate is down 0.2 percentage points from the August 2021 rate of 2.2 percent and down 1.8 percentage points from the September 2020 rate of 3.8 percent.

“The number of employed individuals has returned to pre-pandemic levels with over 1 million individuals employed in September 2021. This is the highest number of employed individuals since March of 2020,” said Commissioner of Labor John H. Albin.

The counts of employed and unemployed in the labor force are based on a survey conducted by the Census Bureau regarding employment status.  Both individuals who are claiming unemployment benefits and those who are not claiming can be counted as unemployed based on their survey responses.  Individuals who are not working and are not seeking work are not considered part of the labor force and are not included in the unemployment rate calculation.

Nonfarm employment, a count of filled jobs, was 1,019,694 in September, up 1,191 over the month and up 28,418 over the year. Private industries with the most growth month to month were professional and business services (up 513) and other services (up 328).  Private industries with the most growth year to year were professional and business services (6,150), trade, transportation, and utilities (up 5,998), and leisure and hospitality (5,657).   

The national seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for September 2021 is 4.8 percent, down 0.4 percentage points from the August 2021 rate of 5.2 percent and down 3.0 percentage points from the August 2020 rate of 7.8 percent. 

October 2021 Nebraska employment data will be published Friday, November 19, 2021.

Employers looking for qualified applicants are encouraged to post their jobs for free on NEworks.nebraska.gov and partner with their closest job center to take advantage of programs geared at recruiting, upskilling, and expanding their workforce.

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