Sources & References
Metro Job Market Pulse · NE NONMETROPOLITAN AREA · October 2026
Every advertised-pay, job-posting and industry figure in this briefing comes from WageScape's own database of active job postings. The sources below back the external facts cited in the written analysis.
Sources cited in this report
Key Indicators
Labor force participation fell to 69.3% in August, down 0.8pt YoY
Nebraska Department of Labor — State labor force participation data
This Month's Takeaways
Job openings-to-unemployed ratio fell below 1.5 from nearly 4 in 2022
Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City — Regional labor market rebalancing analysis
Healthcare and social assistance led Nebraska job growth at 4.5% YoY
Nebraska Department of Labor — Sector employment growth by percentage
Local Economic Conditions
Nebraska's August 2026 unemployment rate held at 2.9%
Nebraska Department of Labor — State labor market release, August 2026
Looking Ahead
National nonfarm payrolls added 29,000 jobs in September with downward revisions
Bureau of Labor Statistics — September 2026 employment situation report
Nebraska minimum wage rises to $15.26 on Jan 1, 2027 under fixed 1.75% annual increases
Nebraska Legislature — Minimum wage policy change, LB-related statute
How the numbers are calculated
- Advertised pay is the median of the pay ranges employers publish in active job postings in this metro. It is not survey or payroll data.
- Percent changes compare the latest six full months with the six months before that, for the same metro and sector.
- Sectors group postings by the employer's industry (NAICS) classification into ten sectors. Where a metro has too few postings in a sector, the state figure is used instead.
- Role pay trends use the same comparison windows. "Stable" means a change of less than 3%; "moderate" 3–10%; "significant" more than 10%.
Official data for comparison