“Significant” job prospect gaps among provinces: CareerAIM

Ontario and Quebec were the only two provinces to see improving career opportunities last month compared to year-ago levels, according a monthly study released by an employment search engine website Monday.

CareerAIM’s January 2010 Canadian Job Market Report found that while the jobs outlook improved for the second consecutive month compared to year-ago levels, the vast majority of provinces actually had fewer new job notices this past January than in January 2009, when the economy was in recession.

“There were significant differences between provinces,” the study authors said.

Nationally, the number of job notices, which is considered an indicator of future hiring intentions, was up 2.1% from the year-ago period.

But Ontario and Quebec were the only two provinces to add to the 3,800 more job prospects.

New Brunswick and British Columbia led the pack of decliners with 21.8% and 18.5% drops respectively.

On a month-over-month basis, the picture was much brighter with most provinces adding jobs over December. Only Nova Scotia and P.E.I. posted decreases of 4.4% and 16.7%.

CareerAIM captures future job prospects from sources at all levels including government, not-for-profits, recruiters, corporate websites and print media ads.