Texas leads nation with lowest unemployment rate in December

Texas unemployment numbers for December have not yet been released. However, the state led the nation last month with the lowest unemployment rate at 3.7 percent and even lower in North Texas.

As online orders come in from companies around the world, Jason Taylor with Selery Fulfillment fills the order. His problem is filling positions for workers.

“We need employees pretty badly. We're lucky right now that kids are out of school for college. We're bringing in family members,” he said. “We definitely need employees. It’s hard to find people right now.”

Taylor is having trouble finding people because the unemployment rate is record low. It is 3.7% in Texas and 3.5% in Dallas-Fort Worth.

The Texas Workforce Commission is trying to train upskill people who are already working and offering online certifications through a grant from Wal-Mart.

“We're looking for 750 current retail workers that will either get them a supervisor or management position in retail or a better job in another industry,” said Laurie Larrea with Workforce Solutions.

“The other thing about our workforce that I want people to understand is that it’s not ideally situated to what we need today,” said Mark Davis, an SMU economist. “We really need to train our workforce. We need to build up workers who can do you know high-end technical stuff.”

The Texas Workforce Commission is offering free upskill training. It is providing Samsung tablets so people can do the online work at home to get certification for better jobs and better pay.