"There's nothing going on here," he said. "It's all shut down."

The economic afflictions in rural New York are by no means confined to Hamilton County. Of the four other counties in the state whose unemployment rates are above 15 percent, two are just to the west of here, Lewis and Jefferson, and two to the east, Essex and Warren.

In the southwestern part of the state, several counties have topped 12 percent unemployment recently. By contrast, the statewide average was 9.3 percent for February, the most recent month for which state Labor Department figures are available, with New York City at 10.9 percent.

Aside from the frustration brought on by months of idle job searches -- "It's enough to start making you go nervous," said Mr. Perkins, whose wife is expecting their first child next month -- the economy has also strained social-service agencies. Requests for county-sponsored free food packages, which typically include pasta, milk and some canned goods, are up between 40 percent and 60 percent over last year, local officials said.

Still, as bad as times are in Hamilton County, several factors combine to give poverty here a different face than in many urban areas.

For one thing, it is so cold that local authorities say they know of no one who is homeless. And even when people are destitute, life seems to be lived on a small enough scale -- the county's total population is 5,279 -- that government seems able to help. Bus Fare for Homesick

Last fall, a Venezuelan immigrant couple took a bus to Indian Lake from New York City and announced they were both jobless and homeless, recalled the county's Commissioner of Social Services, Arthur D. Haynes Jr.

Mr. Haynes put them up in a local motel and gave them work caring for the grounds at the county building. But after a few days they said they were homesick and wanted to go back to New York City.