NEW YORK - U.S. jobs site CareerBuilder is now in 13 countries outside the United States, and as it experiences the most difficult labour market in 40 years, is angling for international growth, in places where the only place to go is up, CareerBuilder CEO Matt Ferguson told the 36th Annual Global Media and Communications Conference Wednesday.

The only area of growth in the labour market in the United States this year has been the health services sector, which has grown by 70,000 jobs. Other sectors, such as manufacturing and retail, have crashed by the hundreds of thousands, he said. In Europe, "overall, our business is small there. So, we can still grow there even in the downturn, because there's only the upside."

CareerBuilder's international strategy began in 2006, and continues to be a "tremendous growth engine for the future," Ferguson said at the conference.

Other than its presence in the United States and Canada, the company is expanding in 11 European countries, including Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and Romania, as well as countries in the Middle East, India and China. In many of those places, CareerBuilder has partnered with MSN as the official career partner for the area.

Measuring itself against top competitor Monster.com, CareerBuilder's year-to-date average unique visitors are at 23.445 million, while Monster's are at 11.286 million, said Brent Rasmussen, the company's North American president.