It's one of those good-news polls that has to make you feel better on Labour Day weekend: Canadians are feeling more confident about their job situation this year.

A survey conducted by Harris/Decima for Monster Canada, the online career and recruitment site, showed that 57 per cent of Canadians feel they have more job security today than they did a year ago. That's well up from 46 per cent last year.

People feeling more confident about their jobs is a good thing: Confidence, after all, is what drives the economy.

But let's not get too carried away, lest we overlook some issues of real concern

Case in point: British Columbia has the lowest reported feelings of job security. Manitoba and Saskatchewan enjoy the highest feeling of job security at 69 per cent, followed by Quebec at 63, Alberta at 56, Ontario at 55 and Atlantic Canada at 54. In B.C., the number is 52 per cent.

Moreover, 52 per cent of British Columbians also fear that Canada will slide into another recession next year. That's slightly higher than the national average of 46 per cent - and well above Manitoba and Saskatchewan, where only 35 per cent of people are worried about another recession.

So why do British Columbians feel less hopeful about the economy than other Canadians?

We don't have the answer - although we'd certainly argue that the HST issue and the lowest minimum wage in the country may be part of the picture - but we certainly hope that the question is being considered by the powers that be in Victoria.

Those powers may argue that we're not, in fact, living under an economic cloud. That may even be true. But if British Columbians as a whole perceive otherwise, that perception could drive us towards the very economic downturn we're so anxious about.

No, we don't need to panic. But we do need to be sure we're not so distracted by the silver lining that we forget about the looming dark cloud.