Tina Cook, 42, worked in administration until Thursday. Her salary helped to support her daughters baby. Then, she said, she was unexpectedly let go from her job.

"I was helping buy the diapers and stuff like that," said Cook. "Now who's going to do that?"

Cook visited Workforce Solutions of West Central Texas on Friday to begin her job hunt, but she said it's hard to stay positive.

"I don't know if I'll find a job paying half as well as I was getting," said Cook. "Abilene is kind of a tough job market."

Friday, the Texas Workforce Commissions released last months unemployment numbers. It showed that the market got even tougher.

The unemployment rate in Abilene rose to 5.7 percent in May. That is almost half a percent higher than the unemployment rate the previous month and it means an additional 400 job seekers.

Amanda Estrada works in the resource room at Workforce Solutions of West Central Texas. She sees many people come in every day looking for employment.

"Actually in the last two weeks we've had an increase in people coming around," Estrada said.

And, she said, there's a lot more to jobhunting than some might think.

"It's easier said than done. Of course there's jobs, but there's qualifications they have to meet," said Estrada.

But Mary Ross, Executive Director of Workforce Solutions of West Central Texas, said the increase in the unemployment rate is pretty typical for this time of year. She said recent college graduates enter the job market and add to unemployment numbers.

"From April to May it goes up a little bit and it will go up again in June, but there are plenty of jobs out there and plenty of employers are hiring," said Ross.

One local company, Teleperformance, will be hiring 150 new employees for a satellite television company over the next few weeks. They said the jobs will be temporary at first, but they are hoping all employees will become permanent.

That may be good news for people like Cook, but she said she really wants to work in administration.

"I'm paying student loans for something I really like to do," said Cook. "I'll be 43 this year and I'm starting over."