Timing the job market, post Olympics?

A friend told me this week she thinks that the job market will freeze up in my province after the 2010 Olympics are over. There's been so much hype about job creation and business booming because Vancouver is hosting the Winter Olympics, that I found her comments surprising. But she makes a good argument.

In the buildup to the big event, everyone is optimistic, spending money, staffing up. Then for a month or so we all work and play full out during the event (well, events plural, really, because the Paralympics are also coming here). But after that, all those people whose jobs revolved around some aspect of the games then become out of work. And suddenly the labour market gets overrun with people looking for jobs.

I had seen it differently. I thought that between the much-talked-about labour shortage and the boom in business from the Olympics and resulting economic development, the job market would stay constant before, during and after the games.

If my friend is right, perhaps I should think about finding a job sinecure before the fall of 2009, because after that I might find it harder to land a job. Or maybe not...