"Good times, bad times,
You know I've had my share" - Led Zeppelin, Good Times Bad Times

In the past months in Vancouver, announcements abound regarding technology jobs.  To wit:

eBay closes call center in September - 700 jobs gone
EA and other local layoffs total 800 out of work in the video game sector
Sierra Wireless lets 53 people go in Q1
Kodak/Creo trims jobs in Q1
Almost every private business in technology trimmed some headcount in Q4 and Q1 to manage expenses

And yet:

Pixar announces studio for Vancouver
Microsoft buys Big Park (read between the lines is that Don Mattirck convinced MSFT that a studio in Vancouver was a great idea)
Ubisoft buys Action Pants (ditto)
Some local high fliers are hiring as well: Elastic Path, Next Level Games, PMC-Sierra, ACL, Vision Critical, Metroleap Media

While the negative still outweighs the positive news, leaving some slack in the local job market, many companies are seeing a bright enough upside right now that they are hiring again.  Did they cut too deep?  Perhaps.  But the economic gloom is moving to more of an economic fog.  The process of hiring out of a sharp downturn takes the form of contract workers and careful hiring... meaning it will go slow.  But the inivitation to hire indicates that the companies have real customer growth and need to manage it.

When you read conflicting stories (one day 700 jobs go, the next day Microsoft buys a local game studio), you can be certain that we are past the bottom of the correction.  Some companies are still struggling while others are seeing brighter days.  When we were augering in to the depths of this current mess, all the news was bad. 

More good news to come I think.  But it will be sprinkled with the bad for a while.