Nebraska continues to be one of the lucky states less affected by raging unemployment rates.
Nebraska's unemployment rate is sitting at nearly half the national rate. The Nebraska Department of Labor says the state unemployment rate declined to 3.8 percent compared to the national rate at 7.9 percent, making the state's rate one of the lowest in the nation.
Nebraska's rate is also on the decline while the national rate rose slightly to 7.9 percent after being at 7.8 percent in September.
The preliminary state rate for October comes in lower than last year's 4.4 percent, and even slightly less than this September's rate of 3.9 percent.
The Kearney area's unemployment rate also saw a rate decrease of .2 percent down to 2.7 percent. The Hastings area saw an even larger decrease over last year's numbers but unemployment is still higher than the Kearney region. Hastings' is sitting at a 3.3 percent rate of unemployment, down .4 percent from last year.
The Grand Island region is seeing numbers close to that of Hastings with a rate of 3.4 percent for October. This is down 1.1 percent from last year.
Labor Commissioner Catherine Lang says
the mild weather this fall has helped boost construction jobs in the
state, and several other industries are growing.
