By Lois Liverman, Director, Employment & Business Centre

Earlier this year, Stats Canada published Canadian job creation figures reporting a slightly optimistic job market forecast. At that time, there seemed to be a glimmer of hope in the United States as well. If you have watched even 3 minutes of CNN in the past few months, you can’t miss posturing politicians who never miss the opportunity to deny that a significant rise in jobs has anything to do with Obama’s plan. Whether the improvements have to do with economics, job creation efforts or a rebounding market, it is safe to say we are better economically on both sides of the border than we were a couple of years ago.

Fast forward to spring 2012. The US employment news is not quite so optimistic. Hiring seems to be occurring in several sectors, including IT and engineering, but there is an average of 500 applicants for each job in the US! Most of the applicants being considered are young university graduates. Good news for graduates, terrible news for all those who lost their jobs.

There is no doubt that the Canadian job market is in better shape than the US. However, Canadian business is so closely linked to the United States that we are still facing an upward climb for those trying to find a decent job, while Canadian companies who conduct business in the US examine their bottom line.

We should be happy to be Canadian. Montrealers have healthy IT, health and social service, service industry and R and D sectors. There are jobs, and many more than there were 2 years ago.