LINCOLN - The Nebraska Department of Labor (NDOL) announced today that Nebraska’s preliminary unemployment rate for January 2023 is 2.5 percent, seasonally adjusted. The rate is down 0.2 percentage points from the December 2022 rate of 2.7 percent and is up 0.4 percentage points from the January 2022 rate of 2.1 percent.  National unemployment rate rankings are available here: bls.gov/web/laus/laumstrk.htm.   

“Nebraska’s labor force grew by 5,070 from January 2022 to January 2023,” said Commissioner of Labor John H. Albin.  “The number of employed workers also increased by 1,000 from December to January.”

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 123,826 in January, down 19,201 over the month.  Private industries with the most growth month to month were other services (up 1,347 jobs) and information (up 26 jobs). Benchmarked nonfarm employment data will be published on March 24, 2023, at which time comparisons to 2022 data will be available.

The national seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for January 2023 is 3.4 percent, down 0.1 percentage points from the December 2022 rate of 3.5 percent.

Data Release Schedule:

March 13, 2023: January 2023 preliminary labor force and nonfarm employment data; revised statewide labor force data for 2018-2022

March 24, 2023: February 2023 preliminary and January 2023 revised labor force and non-farm employment data; revised non-farm employment data for 2018-2022

April 21, 2023: March 2023 preliminary and February 2023 revised labor force and nonfarm employment data; 2018-2022 sub-state revised labor force data

More employment data is available at dol.nebraska.gov/INFOlink.  NDOL press releases are accessible here: dol.nebraska.gov/PressRelease