Nebraska’s preliminary unemployment rate for January was 2.2%, down a tenth of a point from December’s revised rate.
Some of the detailed information normally put out isn’t available, such as comparisons within the state for last January because the Bureau of Labor Statistics is in the midst of benchmarking.
Benchmarking is the agency’s annual revision process that incorporates the latest available data. Benchmarked nonfarm employment data will be published at the end of next week on the 25th, at which time comparisons to 2021 data will be available.
Nebraska Labor Commissioner John Albin says that in January, the state’s workforce grew by over 2,700 while the number of unemployed workers dropped by more than a thousand.
There were 1,032,820 employed workers in Nebraska’s labor force in January. Nearly all the monthly growth in non-farm filled jobs – 1,234 – came in manufacturing with most of those in the Omaha area. Altogether, manufacturing had nearly 200,000 jobs.
The national seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for January is an even 4%, up a tenth of a point from December. Nebraska was tied with Utah for the lowest annual unemployment rate in 2021