The unemployment rate in St. Lawrence County dropped to 5.6 percent in October, but it is still among the highest in the state.

The rate for October was down .3 percent from 5.9 percent in September, and also down from the 6.4 percent calculated in October 2014, according to the state Department of Labor.

The rate is based on calculations from the number of workers with jobs in October, 45,200, and the number getting unemployment benefits, 2,700. That is an improvement from September, when the DOL reported 45,100 people working and 2,800 people on the dole, and better than October 2014, when there were 44,900 working and 3,000 were getting unemployment benefits.

Conditions are similar to our east in Franklin County, where the October unemployment rate was also 5.6 percent, a drop from September’s 5.9 percent, and in Jefferson County to our west, with an unemployment rate of 5.7 percent for October, also down, from 5.8 percent the month before.

In Franklin in October, there were 19,200 people on the job and 1,100 on benefits compared with the same number working and 100 more on the dole in September.

In Jefferson County, 42,700 were working in October, compared with 43,400 in September; receiving benefits were 2,600 in October and 2,700 in September.

The highest unemployment rate in the state outside of New York City was in Oswego County, where the jobless rate stood at 6 percent in October.