(KLZA)-- Unemployment rates continue to drop in extreme Southeast Nebraska while the state unemployment rate went up slightly and drops Nebraska out of the #1 spot in the country. 

Pawnee County has the lowest unemployment rate in the area at 2.2 percent, which is down 3-tenths.  Nemaha County has the highest unemployment rate in the area at 3.4 percent, but that is still down 2-tenths.

Other area county unemployment rates are Richardson County 3-percent; Johnson 2.6-percent; Gage County 3-percent and Otoe County, 2.6-percent. 

All of the counties except Nemaha County have a lower unemployment rate than a year earlier.  The rate is up 3-tenths from September 2014 in Nemaha County. 

The statewide unemployment rate of 2.9 percent is second in the country to the 2.8 percent rate in North Dakota.  Hawaii and New Hampshire have the third lowest rate at 3.4 percent. 

In the Midwest Kansas has an unemployment rate of 4.4 percent; Iowa 3.6 percent, Missouri 5.5 percent; South Dakota 3.5 percent and Colorado 4 percent.

The National unemployment rate for September is 5.1 percent.