Nebraska’s July 2025 Unemployment Rate is 3.0 Percent

LINCOLN - Nebraska’s preliminary unemployment rate for July 2025 is 3.0 percent, seasonally adjusted. The rate is unchanged from the prior month and up 0.2 percentage points from the July 2024 rate of 2.8 percent. The national seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for July 2025 is 4.2 percent, up 0.1 percentage points from the June 2025 rate and the same as the July 2024 rate. National unemployment rate rankings are available here: bls.gov/web/laus/laumstrk.htm.   

“Nebraska has seen record employment and labor force highs month after month in 2025 and July is no exception,” said Labor Commissioner Katie Thurber. “The labor force exceeded 1,087,000 and the number of employed workers surpassed 1,055,000.” 

The labor force includes both employed workers and those who are actively looking for work. The counts of employed and unemployed in the labor force are based on a survey conducted by the Census Bureau regarding employment status.  Both individuals who are claiming unemployment benefits and those who are not claiming can be counted as unemployed based on their survey responses.  Individuals who are not working and are not seeking work are not considered part of the labor force and are not included in the unemployment rate calculation.

Nonfarm employment, the number of filled jobs, was 1,063,946 in July, up 6,449 over the year and down 12,771 over the month.  Private industries with the most over-the-year growth were private education and health services (up 8,168 jobs); leisure and hospitality (up 2,752 jobs); and mining and construction (up 1,906 jobs). Month to month, mining and construction (up 872 jobs) and information (up 8 jobs) had the most growth.

August 2025 employment data will be published Friday, September 19. 

Employers looking for qualified applicants are encouraged to post their jobs for free on NEworks.nebraska.gov and partner with their closest job center to take advantage of programs geared at recruiting, upskilling, and expanding their workforce. Job center locations are listed at https://dol.nebraska.gov/ContactUs. 

More employment data is available at dol.nebraska.gov/INFOlink.  NDOL press releases are accessible here: dol.nebraska.gov/PressRelease