LINCOLN - Officials say Nebraska’s unemployment remained steady at 3.1% in August, matching the July figure.

The Nebraska Labor Department says in a news release Friday that the preliminary August rate was four-tenths of a point higher than the adjusted August 2018 rate of 2.7%.

The new Nebraska rate is well below August’s national preliminary rate of 3.7%, which is unchanged from the July and June rate.

The department says non-farm employment was up last month nearly 9,000 over the year-ago figure and up more than 1,000 over the July figure.