The Tri-County area, consisting of Jefferson, St. Lawrence, and Lewis, has completed the year of 2011 with lower unemployment rates from the previous year, in 2010. This is a great indicator that the economy is making progress and will continue to move forward. It is expected that during 2012, unemployment rates will continue to drop as the recovery is still in progress after such a crippling recession which began in 2007 and ended in 2009.

In Jefferson County, the unemployment rate at the end of the year for 2011 was at 10.1 percent, which was a little lower than the unemployment rate for the previous year, which was at 10.3 percent. Even though the progress was slow, progress was still made. The information was released by the state Department of Labor on Tuesday. In Lewis County, the unemployment rate went from 10 percent to 9.9 percent. In St. Lawrence County, the unemployment rate went down to 10 percent from 10.3 percent.

Alan L. Beideck, an economist, has said, “It appears the unemployment rate has peaked out and is falling over the last six months.” Beideck also says, “We’re seeing a trend for over-the-year unemployment rates that shows a drop” in several months compared with 2010.

Many sectors saw employment gains throughout 2011 and are expected to see more gains during 2012. These sectors include leisure, hospitality, education, health, retail, and business services. With these gains, it is expected that the unemployment rate will continue to decline as more jobs will be available to those who are in need.

Beideck says, “You may have people who have dropped out of the work force because they think there are no jobs to be had.” He also says, “But when they see it improving, they should start looking for jobs again and entering the labor force. Not all of them will be able to immediately find jobs, so those people are still on our unemployment rolls.”

The overall employment outlook is expected to become stronger. Beideck has said, “What’s a little bit different in this recession is that the public sector is still showing declines over the year, so those declines are actually going to dampen the strength of the current economy.” He continued by saying, “We’ve had gains in the private sector and losses in the public sector, so we expect the growth in the economy to be slow and gradual.”

Beideck also says that the unemployment rate often fluctuates by a few percentage points because in the winter months, there are some employees who are off because their place of employment is closed or does not need as many workers during those particular months. Some of these jobs include hotel and resort jobs.