Nebraska’s June unemployment rate increases to 6.7%

The Nebraska Department of Labor is reporting that the state posted a preliminary unemployment rate of 6.7% in June, a significant uptick from May when Nebraska posted a revised unemployment rate of 5.3%, which was the lowest in the country at the time.

The department says the greater volatility in unemployment rates can be attributed to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics temporarily suspending data smoothing in state unemployment figures.

Unemployment in Nebraska reached a historical peak in the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, along with most other states. April unemployment was 8.3%. Prior to that, the state’s worst period of unemployment since the Bureau of Labor Statistics started tracking the figures was during the 1980s Farm Crisis. In 1983, Nebraska reached 6.3% unemployment.

That places the June 2020 unemployment rate as Nebraska’s 2nd highest, exceeding the impact of the 2008-2009 Great Recession. While June’s change takes Nebraska out of the position of currently having the lowest state unemployment rate, fewer Nebraskans are unemployed when compared to residents in all neighboring states.