Nebraska Holds May Jobless Rate at 3.0% as Non-Farm Employment Rises 7,577

Q: Why did Nebraska lose over 4,400 jobs last year despite its low unemployment rate?

Nebraska’s low unemployment rate and its year-over-year job loss measure are tracking different parts of the labor market, and both can be true at once. The state lost about 4,450 nonfarm payroll jobs from May 2025 to May 2026 mainly because declines in a few large sectors outweighed gains elsewhere. Manufacturing shed roughly 4,700 jobs, and trade, transportation and utilities lost about 2,800. Those losses were only partly offset by growth in private education and health services, mining and construction, and leisure and hospitality. At the same time, unemployment stayed low at 3.0% because relatively few Nebraskans were actively out of work and looking for jobs. Nebraska still had one of the nation’s highest labor-force participation rates, but that rate edged down slightly over the year, to 69.8% from 69.9%. When labor-force growth slows or some people leave the job hunt, the unemployment rate can remain low even if payroll employment falls. The data also come from different surveys. The unemployment rate is based on a household survey that counts people, while nonfarm employment comes from an employer survey that counts jobs. That means a state can show fewer payroll jobs even while most workers who want jobs are still employed. So the short answer is that Nebraska did not see broad labor-market collapse; it saw concentrated job losses in manufacturing and logistics-related sectors, while a tight workforce kept unemployment unusually low.

3 articles · Updated · Rural Radio Network · Jun 23

1,066,551 non-farm jobs were filled in Nebraska in May, up 7,577 from April even as the state's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate held at 3.0%.
That rate was up 0.1 percentage point from a year earlier, while total non-farm employment was down 4,450 year over year.
Leisure and hospitality, mining and construction, and other services posted the biggest monthly job gains; private education and health services led annual growth alongside mining and construction and leisure and hospitality.
Nebraska's labor market still outperformed the U.S. in May, with the national unemployment rate unchanged at 4.3%.