LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Labor Department says the state’s preliminary unemployment rate has dropped a tenth of a point, hitting 2.9 percent in May, compared with 3 percent in April.

The department said in a report released Friday that the May rate was three-tenths of a point under the year-ago rate of 3.2 percent. The new rate also remained well below the U.S. rate of 4.3 percent in May.

State Labor Commissioner John Albin says the state and all three metropolitan areas showed job increases month to month and year to year and that the total number of Nebraska’s nonfarm jobs in May was a record.