LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Officials say Nebraska’s unemployment rate inched up to 2.9% in April.

The Nebraska Labor Department said in a news release Friday that the preliminary April rate is up a tenth of a point from March’s rate of 2.8% – the same figure recorded for April 2018. It also was well below April’s national preliminary rate of 3.6%, which is down two-tenths of a point from 3.8% in March and three-tenths of a point under the April 2018 rate of 3.9%.

The Nebraska figure had been 2.8% for eight months in a row.

The preliminary nonfarm employment figure last month rose to more than 1.02 million.