Buffalo lit up as the sun set, the radial streets fanning out below. The Connecting Terminal shone bright and colorful, to the delight of those who took another look at Buffalo from the 25th and 28th floor observation decks of City Hall last Saturday. HarborCenter was flanked by the newly opened rinks where the Erie Canal once flowed, The Silent Poets drew eyes to Canalside, where rubble reigned until just a few years ago. The Labatt Blue silos were a beacon over RiverWorks and a crane flew high over the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. The Central Terminal loomed over the East Side, a tantalizing promise of what may become the next phase of the resurgence.

But Take Another Look also revealed equally an important, if less visible, sign of the resurgence downstairs in the grand Lobby: opportunity. That's a code word for jobs, and contrary to popular belief, there are many in Buffalo. 

Citi Bank brought more than 300 job openings to Take Another Look, representing a robust banking and finance sector begging for talent to fill good paying jobs. BlueCross BlueShield of WNY was there, too, with more than 200 open positions that need to be filled, nearly half of them IT jobs, representing a large and vital healthcare sector with a wide range of opportunities. And then there is Solar City, bringing the promise of more than 1,500 jobs. Hiring is ramping up. And that's just one manufacturing firm in a rapidly growing sector.

All in all, nearly 2,000 jobs sat open and waiting for takers down in the Lobby of City Hall, appetizers for those who have been waiting impatiently for the opportunity to come home. " Over the past year, the local job market has gained 12,600 jobs – more jobs than the region added during the entire four-year period between 2009 and 2013," according to The Buffalo News.

"In the last year alone, the region has added 2,900 construction jobs...Over the past five years, local factories have increased their work forces by almost 8 percent, or nearly 4,000 jobs. The financial services sector has added 3,700 jobs over the past five years, and education and health services added 6,400. Leisure and hospitality firms, which include bars, restaurants and hotels, now have 14 percent more jobs than they did five years ago, according to state Labor Department data." 

"The number of unemployed workers has plunged by more than 35 percent during the past three years, while the number of workers holding jobs is at a five-year high." This means that HR departments are once again scrambling for talent. The huge Buffalo diaspora is a gold mine of potential recruits.

And there's not just quantity but also quality opportunity. BAK USA is a startup that hires at risk individuals and nurtures them, creating excellent employees who make the only tablets assembled in the U.S. right here in Buffalo. This represents opportunity for those who are all too often overlooked even in boom times. And IBM is not just hiring, it's upgrading the IT workforce to meet its Big Data needs and fill as many as 500 new positions at the IBM Business Innovation Center on the BNMC.

Last Friday, the day before nearly 2,000 guests flocked to City Hall to Take Another Look, I received a phone call from Amy, an expat in Eagle, Colorado, a beautiful ski town high in the Rockies. She was calling to purchase one of my Buffalo Heritage books, but the conversation soon turned to Buffalo. "I'd really love to come home, but there are no jobs..." she lamented, singing the same old refrain that expats have sung for years.

Newsflash. This is simply no longer true. There are now jobs in Buffalo. There may not be the right job for every person seeking one, but there really are jobs. This is a critical facet of the resurgence that was visible in the Lobby of City Hall, not from the Observation Decks.

Amy sent me her resume. Anyone know of an opening for a librarian?