‘There are plenty of jobs out there,’ More jobs available in Lubbock as unemployment remains low

LUBBOCK, Texas — The unemployment rate is at an all-time low for the state of Texas according to the latest data from Workforce solutions, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t jobs to fill and people still seeking jobs.

Director of Business Development at Workforce Solutions, Danny Soliz said recent statistics show that the unemployment rate did slightly increase between May and June this year from 3.2% to 4.1%.

Soliz said they believe this was caused by school workers who apply for unemployment during the summer.

Workforce solutions are not slowing down on the South Plains, holding multiple job fairs these last few months.

“We did an in-person job fair at the Civic Center, we had 55 employers there and then we had 611 job seekers that came,” Soliz said.

Soliz said the pandemic took a toll on the job market which is just recovering.

“Since then, the market has really come back, everybody starts coming back to work, so the jobs started coming in and employers started looking for people,” Soliz said.

Carpet Tech COO, Stephanie Henderson said their business felt the impact while hiring during the pandemic.

“It’s just been just a game changer for hiring, especially in our field,” Henderson said. “I think anybody that’s tried to hire in the last four years has had a hard time finding people that can be at work every day.”

Soliz said the two fields employers are looking to do a lot of hiring are medical and education, and their non-profit program is willing to help pay for training to help applicants meet those job requirements and skills.

“Some of those jobs are not easy to fill because they got to have training, and a lot of businesses may not have the training dollars, but we can help them with that,” Soliz said.

Soliz recommended their career center and programs offered to low-income families that may qualify for training opportunities, job prep, and even child care.

Henderson said they have been able to hire a lot more people since the pandemic ended, and if they could give any advice to applicants, it would be to do your research.

“See what our company is about, what are our values,” Henderson. “We feel like it’s just as important for the person that’s coming in trying to get a job to feel comfortable with our values just like we can go comfortable with theirs.”

For more information on free resources offered by Workforce Solutions South plains, visit their website here.

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