Nebraska’s February Unemployment Rate is 3.1 Percent

Nebraska’s Workforce Shows Resilience:
Nebraska’s preliminary unemployment rate for February 2026 is 3.1 percent, seasonally adjusted. The rate is up 0.1 percentage points from the January 2026 unemployment rate of 3.0 and up 0.2 percent over the year.

“Nebraska’s unemployment rate continues to trend well below the national average,” said Commissioner of Labor Katie Thurber. “Our workforce continues to demonstrate resilience.”

The national seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for February 2026 is 4.4 percent, up 0.1 percentage points from the January 2026 unemployment rate and up 0.2 percent from the February 2025 unemployment rate. National unemployment rate rankings are available here.

Total Non-Farm Employment:
Non-farm employment, the number of jobs filled, was 1,040,342 in February, down 3,304 over the month and down 5,043 over the year.  Private industries with the most over-the-month growth were private education and health services (up 784 jobs), leisure and hospitality (up 320 jobs) and mining and construction (up 18 jobs).  The largest over-the-year growth came from mining and construction (up 3,481 jobs), private education and health services (up 3,330 jobs), and other services (up 79 jobs). 

The 2025 benchmark revisions for the Current Employment Statistics (CES) program are now available. The updated data include non‑seasonally adjusted estimates from April 2024 through December 2025 and seasonally adjusted estimates from January 2021 through December 2025. Due to industry classification changes, limited historical revisions extend back to 2023. Nebraska’s total non-farm annual average revisions were minimal in the latest cycle (about -0.1% for 2025). Overall, the changes reflect updated administrative data, reclassification, and improvements in estimation.