Nebraska’s 5.8% Unemployment Rate Is Lowest in America

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Jun 20, 9:14AM EDT

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Nebraska’s 5.8% Unemployment Rate Is Lowest in America — © davidwilson1949 / Flickr

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statics has released its State Employment and Unemployment survey for May. The national rate, reported earlier in the month, was 13.3%. It was no surprise that the rate was higher in all 50 states and in the District of Columbia when compared to May 2019. The figure was well below the national rate in one state though. Nebraska’s was 5.8%, the lowest in the country.

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The number was still grim when compared to a national figure that was between 3.5% and 3.6% per month for much of 2019. Nebraska’s rate was below 3% for a number of months. Those days will be gone for a while. However, Nebraska’s figure was still remarkable. No other state had a rate below 8%.

Nebraska’s 5.8% compared to the annual national rate as America emerged from the Great Recession. The jobless rate peaked at 9.9% for the entire country. It dropped to 5.6% in 2014, on its way to less than 4% figures in 2018 and 2019.

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According to an analysis by 24/7 Wall St. through last week, unemployment claims in Nebraska also have been low:

Nebraska
> Unemployment claims since mid-March: 143,979 (8th fewest)
> Unemployment claims relative to workforce: 14.0% of workforce (3rd lowest)
> April unemployment rate: 8.3% (3rd lowest)
> Most recent week’s unemployment claims (June 7 – June 13): 4,918 (12th fewest)
> Change in weekly claims from one year ago: +4,206 (+591%)
> Pre-COVID-19 pct. of workers in high-risk industries: 15.7% (11th lowest)

Relatively low unemployment rates in May were concentrated in low population states that cover large areas as measured by square miles. The rate in Idaho was 8.9%, and it was 9.0% in Montana. The figure was 9.1% in North Dakota and 9.4% in South Dakota. It was 8.8% in Wyoming.

Nebraska’s largest industry is agriculture. Employment in transportation, manufacturing and technology is substantial as well. Omaha is home to the nation’s largest conglomerate, Berkshire Hathaway. Many people are employed in the insurance industry as well.

It will be months before the government releases job rates by industry by state. Presumably, those industries that dominate Nebraska’s job pool have been mostly durable. If so, Nebraska will remain among the states with the lowest unemployment rates in the country.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.