Nebraska reported its lowest unemployment rate in eight months in February.
The state Department of Labor said Friday that last month's unemployment rate was 2.3%, the lowest rate since June. However, the rate is up from 2% in February 2022.
The February rate was third-lowest in the country, trailing only North Dakota and South Dakota.
The number of people employed in Nebraska was virtually the same as it was a year ago, up only 72, while the number of unemployed people grew by more than 3,500. However, the Labor Department reported nearly 22,700 more jobs in February than there were a year ago.
Economists have previously said that an increased number of unemployed people without a corresponding drop in employed people is an indicator of people who hadn't been seeking work returning to the labor force rather than people losing jobs.
People are also reading…
The February unemployment rate in the Lincoln Metropolitan Statistical Area was 2%, which was the same as it was in January and down slightly from 2.1% in February 2022.
There were about 2,600 more people employed in the Lincoln area last month compared with a year ago and about 60 fewer unemployed people. Lincoln also had slightly more than 4,000 more jobs than it did in February 2022.