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Job opportunities expand within Nebraska’s ethanol industry

Nebraska’s ethanol industry has helped create a number of employment opportunities in the state.

University of Nebraska-Lincoln associate professor Tim Meyer says there were more than 1,800 ethanol-related jobs between 2021 and 2023.

“It’s about 75 jobs per plant. There’s a range of from about 25 to about 400 jobs per plant, but 75 is a pretty good average. And those are in small towns. Most of those towns have populations under 2500 people.”

He tells Brownfield the industry has had a positive impact on the rural Mainstreet economy.

“When you put that many jobs in a town of that size where wages are around $80,000 on average, that provides a good living for the jobs created directly by the ethanol industry.”

 Meyer says Nebraska ethanol contributed more than $1.2 billion in economic activity throughout the state in 2022. This data was recently released in a UNL study that examined the economic impacts of the state’s ethanol industry.

AUDIO: UNL’s Tim Meyer on Nebraska’s ethanol industry