One other thing is that retirements continue so the demand for labour is still quite high. Government is suffering from aging workforce. Although have a look at Alberta — richest province during the oil boom and now they are going to cut government. When folks say cut nowadays they mostly do it through retirements so it doesn’t really hurt.

Construction did go down but not for infrastructures. My brother-in-law actually work on bridges and over passes and he worked all year long so far.

Childcare: demand is big in Quebec, that is for sure due to the Baby Boom.

Sales: most salesmen are in good position to keep their job actually since companies need revenue and they are the top income producer of any type of firms.

Construction was the first thing to spiral down.
Energy demand is way way down and practically all new energy projects have been cancelled.
Childcare demand must be lower as laid-off parents cannot afford to stay at home and care for kids.
Sales: I agree that it would be smart to hire more salespeople I am sure that companies are not doing this but rather laying off their marginal performers to keep only top producers.
Auditors: Maybe, but you need training that is longer than the recession to switch into this career.
Luxury: Maybe the second-hand-luxury sector.

I would say that small companies are most on the rise and any services related exclusively to those would be on the rise. That’s because unemployed people with no prospects often start home-based businesses. I’m thinking blogging, day trading, web dev services, various kinds of co-op schemes, etc.

But let us consider:

The reported unemployment statistic (the one everybody pays attention to) uses a method that started in 1994. In that method, anyone who has exhausted UI benefits and have gotten so discouraged they stopped looking for work is discounted altogether!
Thank you for Green Shooting. Always nice to see a green shoot article pop up from time to tome.

But let us consider:

When we use the old methodology (the one used in the 1930′s) that simply considers: Are you eligible to work, and are you working yes/no, we find that unemployment by that number is over 18%. And at the height of the Great Depression, it was 24%.

We are very close, and indeed some cities in the US, we are already in Great Depression territory on unemployment. Perhaps the biggest untold story of our day is the unemployment crisis. Compared to how bad it is, the media is barely touching it.

Your green shoots not withstanding.