Employment in Nebraska reached another high in November, according to the latest data from the Department of Labor.

“This is the second consecutive month of record nonfarm employment in Nebraska,” said Labor Commissioner John Albin.

That peak number of filled nonfarm jobs, he said, reached 1,048,406, which is up 2,554 over the month before and up 29,117 over the same time a year earlier.

Private industries showing the most job growth over last year were construction and mining, followed by leisure and hospitality, then trade, transportation and utilities.

The preliminary, seasonally adjusted data released Friday showed Nebraska’s unemployment rate at 2.5%, which is up slightly from the 2.4% recorded last month.

Nationally, the unemployment rate was 3.7%, the same as a month earlier.

The data showed Nebraska tied with Vermont for ranking fifth in the country for the lowest unemployment rate — behind Utah, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

Consistently since August 2020, over one million Nebraskans have been employed, the department said.

In calculating unemployment rates, labor officials look at a survey conducted by the Census Bureau regarding employment status. Individuals who claim unemployment benefits and those who aren’t claiming them can both be counted as unemployed, depending on their survey responses.

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