Rate is Lowest in State’s History and Remains Lowest Ever Nationwide

LINCOLN - The Nebraska Department of Labor (NDOL) announced today that Nebraska’s preliminary unemployment rate for May 2022 is 1.9 percent, seasonally adjusted. The rate is unchanged from the April 2022 rate and is down 0.6 percentage points from the May 2021 rate of 2.5 percent.  The rate continues to be a record low for Nebraska and ties the record low for any state.  National unemployment rate rankings are available here: https://www.bls.gov/web/laus/laumstrk.htm. Nebraska’s May rate is the lowest rate in the country.

“Nebraska has seen 11 straight months of historically high employment levels,” said Commissioner of Labor John H. Albin.  “This is the second consecutive month of record employment for the Omaha metro and the third consecutive month for the Lincoln metro.”

Over one million Nebraskans have been employed since August of 2020. 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 1,033,486 in May, up 4,693 over the month and up 21,829 over the year.  Private industries with the most growth month to month were leisure and hospitality (up 1,647); education and health services (up 1,080); and mining and construction (up 641).  Private industries with the most growth year to year were education and health services (up 5,096); trade, transportation, and utilities (up 4,848); and leisure and hospitality (up 4,154). 

The national seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for May 2022 is 3.6 percent, unchanged from the April 2022 rate and down 2.2 percentage points from the May 2021 rate of 5.8 percent.

June 2022 Nebraska employment data will be published Friday, July 22, 2022. 

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 employment statistics are available at dol.nebraska.gov. NDOL press releases are accessible here: dol.nebraska.gov/PressRelease