Career and Job Search Help Blog

You have been working in a particular industry for a long time and know a lot about it. Now you are thinking of changing jobs in that same industry or exploring a different industry completely. There are many sources, such as newspapers and industry magazines, that will keep you up-to-date with what is going on. But have you checked out Toronto Public Library's Marketline?

This is an online database that is available only at the Toronto Reference Library (at the Yonge/Bloor subway stop) and the North York Central Library (at the North York Centre subway stop.) It is a massive collection of company, industry and even country information, covering 200+ countries and every major industry. Each industry study is about 20 pages long and provides standardized market data (including size & segmentation) and competitive analysis. You will find more than 2 500 market research reports on key industrial and consumer sectors across the world's leading economies. Also useful are the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analyses for the most important companies in each industry sector. There are about 1 800 Canadian companies listed, amongst company profiles for over 10 000 public and private companies.

You can browse the Industries or Companies Information or Countries Information catagories or type in a search word or words in the Search Our Products box on the homepage. Once you get a list of results, you can refine your search by limiting the search to results published within the past 7, 14, 28 days, past year, 2 or 2+ years. I personally would not put such a restriction; otherwise I might miss a report. I would however refine the search by industry and geography.

These reports can only be printed – they cannot be emailed or saved to a usb flashdrive nor the library's hard drive.

It is a powerful and comprehensive database – go to either Toronto Reference Library or North York Central Library to learn more about how this database can be useful for your research!