LINCOLN - The Nebraska Department of Labor (NDOL) announced today that Nebraska’s preliminary unemployment rate for August 2022 is 2.1 percent, seasonally adjusted. The rate is up 0.1 percentage points from the July 2022 rate and is down 0.4 percentage points from the August 2021 rate of 2.5 percent.  National unemployment rate rankings are available here: bls.gov/web/laus/laumstrk.htm. Nebraska’s August rate is the third lowest in the country.

“The number of employed workers in the state increased by over 16,000 since August 2021,” said Commissioner of Labor John H. Albin. “Nebraska also saw an uptick in new entrants in the labor force from July to August.”

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 1,029,051 in August, down 3,238 over the month and up 16,336 over the year.  Private industries with the most growth month to month were financial activities (up 877), mining and construction (up 718), and information (up 385).  Private industries with the most growth year to year were professional and business services (up 3,387), leisure and hospitality (up 3,162), and education and health services (up 3,142). 

The national seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for August 2022 is 3.7 percent, up 0.2 percentage points from the July 2022 rate and down 1.5 percentage points from the August 2021 rate of 5.2 percent.

September 2022 Nebraska labor force and employment data will be published Friday, October 21, 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 data is available at dol.nebraska.gov/INFOlink.  NDOL press releases are accessible here: dol.nebraska.gov/PressRelease