By BILL SHUMWAY

Viewers visit NorthCountryNow.com for many reasons, and not just to find out the latest St. Lawrence County news.

One of the pages that almost always ranks in the “top five” is our Employment Ads page at http://northcountrynow.com/classifieds/employment

At any time, 40 to 50 St. Lawrence County job openings are featured on the Employment Ads page. So it is not surprising interest is high, especially since the local unemployment rate is generally near 10 percent.

But another reason we believe viewers visit the Employment Ads page more than 40,000 times a month is because virtually all the ads are for real job openings in St. Lawrence County.

A number of other online job posting sites that claim to serve St. Lawrence County are often filled with questionable “work-at-home” postings and ads from national firms seeking salespeople willing to “open new territory” or for “independent contractors.”

By contrast, the NorthCountryNow.com Employment Ads page is filled with jobs ranging from cashiers to plant managers, and from engineers to coaching positions.

Among the most common ads are health care positions placed by hospitals and agencies through St. Lawrence County, positions at facilities in Massena and Ogdensburg, teaching and support jobs at the North Country’s many public schools and frequent openings at the four college campuses in Canton and Potsdam.

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Diane Dockum, who handles most of our classified ads, has received kudos from a number of people who have placed employment ads on NorthCountryNow.com in recent months.

An employment ad placed by a St. Lawrence County municipality for a specialized position drew five times as many applicants as a similar ad placed with a local newspaper.

A health care agency received more than 200 applications for one job, and those who responded after seeing the opening advertised on NorthCountryNow.com were in general much better qualified. In addition, they were much more likely to live near Canton, where the job is located, unlike applicants who responded from other sources who often lived an hour or father away.

And sometimes, Diane is asked to cancel an employment ad early because the position is filled quickly.

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Even if you can’t find a job that suits you on the NorthCountryNow.com Employment Ads page, we still may be able to help you find work.

Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page and look for “More Job Listings and Resources.”

There you will find links to Civil Service jobs available in St. Lawrence County and openings listed with the New York State Department of Labor, as well as other local help wanted sites and employment agencies.