Texas employment growth is flat, Fed report says

The big picture: The national unemployment rate reached a four-year high of 4.5% in November but dropped in December to 4.4%, signaling hiring in the final month of the year.

• Texas has maintained a lower unemployment rate than the rest of the country over the past year, hovering around 4.2% in November, per the latest from the Texas Workforce Commission.

State of play: The state's labor force grew in the last year, adding more than 206,000 people, but unemployment has also increased, according to the Workforce Commission.

• The Dallas Fed's employment forecast estimates Texas lost 2,200 jobs last year, largely due to a weak fourth quarter.

Zoom in: The Dallas-Fort Worth metro has a slightly lower unemployment rate of 4%.

• But most major Texas metros had little to no job growth in November, except for Austin, per the Dallas Fed.

By the numbers: In December, North Texas employers had laid off more than 10,000 employees over the year, according to a KERA analysis of workforce data. Many of the cuts were in logistics and retail technology.

What they're saying: "Higher productivity is suppressing labor demand, and less immigration is constraining labor supply," senior business economist Luis Torres said in the Dallas Fed report.