With the start of holiday shopping season this week also came the news of 200 workers laid off from air craft manufacturer Daussault Falcon in Little Rock. Numbers came out this week that showed the national unemployment rate dropped slightly to 10%. But in October, the numbers in the River Valley rose to 7.8%.

That's nearly 1% in a month.

Throughout the recession, Arkansas' unemployment numbers have remained lower than the rest of the nations.

Financial expert Stan Eden says despite recent layoffs in the area, the River Valley is doing okay. "I think we do have some unique circumstances. We didn't have the housing boom the overall country had. So places like Arizona, California, and Florida that have had a really dramatic decline in the house markets there. We're not associated with the auto markets as Detroit is and things like that. So that has greatly helped us," he said.

Eden says he thinks the worst is behind us.

Still it may be a few months before the jobs start coming back. "Overall we're getting close to the point where we're about to make the turn now. But we still think we're maybe 6 to 8 months, maybe summertime, from that standpoint where we really start to see the unemployment drop dramatically. But we're not there yet," said Eden.

Leslie Hale says in the financial downturn, people need to take a close look at their investments.

She says to always have at least three months of savings stored up in case of a lay-off or unexpected disaster. "The rule of thumb, I've always told people, as far as their investments- if they can't sleep at night, then they need to re-evaluate what they're doing and look at something that is less risky. And the stock market right now is risky," said Hale. Eden and Hale tell me that when the recovery does begin, it will be a very slow process.

They say the first thing you should do if the economy starts to affect your investments is to seek the help of a financial expert.