LINCOLN - For the first time ever, Nebraska's unemployment rate has dropped below 2%.

According to data released Friday by the Nebraska Department of Labor, the state's unemployment rate for October was 1.9%. Not only has the rate never been that low in Nebraska, it's never been that low in any other state, either. A big part of the reason the unemployment rate continued to drop so low last month was the increase in people working. The number of filled jobs in the state grew by more than 30,500 compared with October 2020 and by more than 10,700 from September.

Commissioner of Labor John H. Albin said the month-to-month jobs increase was the highest ever recorded for October.

Despite the increase in people with jobs, Nebraska still faces a huge labor shortage. As of this week, there were more than 50,000 jobs being advertised statewide on the Department of Labor's website. A recent study from the Pew Charitable Trusts found that Nebraska has the largest shortage of workers in the country based on available jobs to unemployed workers, with a ratio of three open jobs to every one unemployed worker.

The state's unemployment rate was less than half the national rate of 4.6%

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