Nebraska unemployment drops to 3.2 percent

February’s rate represents 136,826 unemployed persons, compared to 141,217 in January and 130,283 in February 2016. For the year since February 2016, employment in our state posted a healthy increase of 23,000. There were smaller gains in four other sectors.

“It’s just a very good report for a state economy that seems to be doing very well right now”, said Richard Kaglic, an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. “There are thousands of good paying jobs now available throughout Indiana”.

Limestone’s neighboring counties also experienced decreases in the jobless rate.

Only the state and USA unemployment rates are seasonally adjusted. “Thus, Ohio’s growth was below the United States of America national average by a large amount in February 2017”.

While 2017 started with an increase in unemployment, February has seen those numbers slightly fall. “So we have more people looking for work”. The nation gained 235,000 jobs.

The employment to population ratio estimate of 61.6 percent remained above the USA average of 60.0 percent.

This compares to a February unemployment rate for White men of 3.8 percent, down from 4.0 percent in January.

Iowa Workforce Development considers a 3 percent unemployment rate to be full employment for the state, a department spokesman said.

In the city of Jamestown, preliminary data shows an unemployment rate of 7.7 percent for January. Morgan County’s rate fell from 6.2 to 5.7.

“After 17 years, Illinois jobs have finally regained their September 2000 peak”, said Illinois Department of Employment Security Director Jeff Mays. There were also more than 9,000 additional individuals in the labor force, suggesting optimism about job opportunities.

The number of people employed rose by 16,648 over the month to 4,691,581 and rose by 104,362 over the year. A year earlier, it was 59.8 percent. “However, when compared to this time previous year, total nonfarm employment changed little”, said Tyler Tenbrink, senior labor economist for the department, in a statement accompanying the report.