The job market in and around Toronto may be absolutely brutal right now, but a different Ontario city is advertising thousands of open positions available, with not enough people to fill them.

Amid a radical jump in EI claims across the province and a worrying surge in the unemployment rate in T.O. specifically, northwestern Ontario seems to be booming, with more than a purported 1,200 full- and part-time jobs awaiting applicants.

The director of the North Superior Workforce Planning Board, a regional advisory body that tries to retain and attract talent to the area, said at a municipal meeting on March 1 that the Thunder Bay and Nipigon region has "tons of jobs but no people," largely due to a population that is aging out of the workforce.

The cap on international student workers has also been a factor, with Thunder Bay being home to Lakehead University and Confederation College.

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He went on to note that beyond the local companies seeking candidates to fill roles ASAP — many of which offer high salaries — there is also the potential for remote work, which residents could perform from a part of the province with a far cheaper cost of living than, say, Toronto.

The average price of a home in Thunder Bay is, as of the beginning of this year, only $264,538, compared to an outrageous $1,026,703 for the typical home in Greater Toronto.

Rant: This is the worst job market I have ever seen
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Speaking to Superior North News Watch, officials present at the recent meeting cited tons of work currently available in the forestry industry, at local hospitals, and at a new mine in Greenstone, Ontario, among jobs in other sectors.

This is all while citizens in other parts of the province are bemoaning "the worst job market they have ever seen," some of them claiming to have applied to more than 1,000 jobs unsuccessfully in recent months.