Unemployment up everywhere except Nebraska

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=1208&u_sid=10596550

Published Friday March 27, 2009
Unemployment up everywhere except Nebraska
BY VIRGIL LARSON
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

About 800 fewer people were unemployed in Nebraska last month than in January, enough to drop the jobless rate one-tenth of a percentage point and set the state apart from the rest of the country.



Nebraska benefited from significant job growth in education and health services.

February unemployment numbers for individual states were released Friday, and Nebraska was the only state whose jobless rate dropped from January, falling to 4.2 percent.

"It's good news the rate didn't go up again," said Scott Hunzeker, a Nebraska Labor Department statistician. "Holding steady is not a bad thing."

Hunzeker, though, cautioned against reading too much into month-to-month figures.

The state still had nearly 12,000 more jobless people than in February 2008.

Christopher Decker, an associate professor of economics at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, also said the month-over-month drop was good news.

FULL story at link.