Nebraska unemployment rate (-3,000 jobs) jumps in March (highest level in 22 years)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1208&u_sid=10612304

Published Friday April 17, 2009
Nebraska unemployment rate jumps in March
BY VIRGIL LARSON
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Nearly 3,000 more Nebraskans lost their jobs in March, raising the state’s unemployment rate to its highest level in 22 years.

The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that 45,931 Nebraskans were without jobs last month, compared with 43,000 in February and 39,146 in March 2008.

Nearly 88,000 Iowans were without jobs in March, 21,000 more than a year earlier.

But as in February, the construction industry added jobs, about 600. Financial services employment grew by 198. Nebraska’s jobless rate is the third-lowest in the country. Iowa’s is fifth-lowest, tied with Utah.

The national unemployment rate, reported earlier, was 8.5 percent last month. So the rates of Nebraska (4.6 percent) and Iowa (5.2 percent), while up, are well under the national rate.

The last time Nebraska’s jobless rate was 4.6 percent was in June 1987.

FULL story at link.