In December, Nebraska businesses added 2,224 jobs while Iowa firms increased positions by a total of 3,500, rounding out a year of improvement for both states.
But both states saw little change in their unemployment rates as joblessness in Nebraska held steady at 4.1 percent and Iowa's figure improved slightly to 5.6 percent in December from 5.7 percent in November. The Iowa rate marks the best unemployment result since June 2009.
Nebraska Labor Commissioner Cathy Lang said even though Nebraska's unemployment rate remained the same, manufacturing jobs grew by 1,014 and finished the year on solid footing.
Overall, Nebraska manufacturing companies finished 2011 with 2.8 percent more jobs than they had at the end of 2010, Lang said.
In Iowa, the year-end figures beat state estimates.
"The state's economy ended 2011 in a better place than was expected just a few months ago," said Teresa Wahlert, director of Iowa Workforce Development. "Both the labor force and total employment are beginning to trend upward, and the unemployment rate has fallen considerably below the 6.0 percent mark."
Contact the writer:
402-444-1414, ross.boettcher@owh.com
twitter.com/rossboettcher
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
