Houston makes smart phone app for job seekers

When Tracy Beaver looks for a job, she simply picks up her smartphone and walks down the street. Beaver is using the new, free job-finding app from the city of Houston called TweetMyJobsHouston.

Job seekers create a profile and when a company lists an opening that matches, an alert is sent to the potential new employee.

"All of a sudden everything this just kind come of comes to your computer, comes to my phone and there is this long list and I can go, 'No. No. No. No. No. Yes!'" Beaver said.

But the coolest feature is the virtual job search, which shows people exactly who is hiring around them right now.

"The jobs are hourly all the way up to professional," said Carlecia Wright, director of the Houston Office of Business Opportunity.

Wright says the app has been available for just two weeks and already more than 13,000 job seekers have it with new job openings are listed every day.

"It ranges from jobs, companies that are thousands of employees to very small companies," she said.

Maria Rios of Nation Waste owns one of those small companies. When she saw the apps potential for finding workers, she posted jobs immediately.

"Wow! This is innovation, so we are ready to take a step higher," Rios said.

For job seekers, it's an opportunity now as close as the palm of their hand.

The app is funded by a grant and is free for both iPhone and Android devices