Recession Proof Jobs And Careers At A Glance

By Raj | Oct 20, 2008

Unless you’ve been living under a rock somewhere on Mars, you realize that US is going through a major financial crisis right now with its impact feared on the total global economy and the toughest part being the effects gradually reaching your wallet. So what’s the cause of this crisis? It’s just bad business and frankly bad debt. A few bad decisions by those at the top of the “economic chain” have now snowballed into a catastrophic situation. And worse, I’m guessing you (like most) learned about money from this same failing system. How much “bad debt” do you have? If your income were suddenly reduced or eliminated, are you prepared? I’ll tell you one thing; Washington does not have a “bailout plan” for you personally. I don’t know if you’ve seen the idea to send the “bailout” money out to the public instead of these companies? That’s definitely not going to happen. So there will be no “government lottery.” As hard as it might be for you to believe, there are people who aren’t worried at all right now, why? Because they have no debt! If they lost their income, they won’t lose their home, they won’t lose their cars, and many of them have enough cash to live on for quite a while. Okay, debt free and worriless living is a different topic; leave it apart. We have reports coming in of issuance of pink slips, prediction by Bill Gates of significant recession and more job loss, all indicating that the worst is yet to come. So if you don’t have that cash savings to anticipate doom days, are you prepared to switch jobs if yours is not a recession proof one? If you’re a fresher in search of a job or if you’re yet to choose a career, have you analyzed which are those recession proof careers?

Recession proof careers and jobs at a glance

Okay, now let’s have a quick look at those recession proof jobs. Before that, by the way, what is the difference between a career and a job? A job is something that you do just for the sake of money and you are not bothered in improving your skills and pay from where you are in that work where as in a career you build up your skills to move into a more prestigious and higher echelon with greater pay and employment opportunity. Find a more detailed illustration on the differences between a job and a career.

Out of the necessities for basic living viz., food, water, air, health, clothing and shelter, the last two can get wrecked with recession as you know the tip of the iceberg that brought in the current slowdown itself is the subprime mortgage crisis. Let’s check about the jobs in other sectors.

Food Manufacturing:

Unlike many other industries, food manufacturing industry is not highly sensitive to economic conditions, as the demand for food is likely to remain relatively stable even during periods of recession (but soaring food prices due to siphoning of agricultural products to produce biofuel have added 75 million more people to global hunger rolls, totaling 923 million undernourished people worldwide right now, hence we have an increased demand here for food in this recession). So any career in the food manufacturing industry can be considered safe as it being the essential commodity to sustain lives, come whatever global recession or economic crisis.

Health Care:

No matter whether it rains or shines, recession or progression, inflation or deflation, people will get sick. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics’ career guide to health care, the number of people in older age groups, with much greater than average healthcare needs, will grow faster than the total population between 2006 and 2016; as a result, the demand for health care will increase. So the healthcare industry, the largest industry (including ours, a subdivision of it, the medical transcription industry), isn’t going to get a blow with the global melt down; while on the other hand it continues to add jobs according to Employment Situation Summary.

Educational Services:

May be the stigma in the society that teachers are the laziest and don’t make a heavy bunch of money is true but they do earn a respectable living. They do have a lot of declared holidays and less working time and recession isn’t going to reverse people from education. If you have a master’s degree or a doctorate in any discipline, you can get settled down with a well paid teaching job; then why not settle for a teaching job?

Legal Services:

With increasing legal transactions, criminal cases (see the US crime rates from 1960 onwards), and civil disputes, and increasing demand for legal services in areas such as health care, intellectual property, venture capital, energy, elder, antitrust and environmental law, or to say it easily, as long as opinions defer, opportunities exist for legal professionals, come whatever economic crisis. So why not chose a legal career?

Public Services:

Though there may not be a number of leaps of increments at regular intervals in salaries for the turners of the government machinery as with private jobs, permanent government jobs are the topmost safe ones as any government can’t run without its employees, be it the armed force or civilian force, and no government is going to cut jobs or reduce pay just because it is recession. Life after retirement too is safe for government employees with safe-on-earth pension plans where you can earn up to 80% of your highest salary with excellent health benefits. So why not make a career in public service as your first choice?

Energy:

The combination of spiraling oil prices and recession could lead to consumers cutting back on energy, but they’re not going to stop using energy. Mining continued to add jobs even in this recession according to Employment Situation Summary, hence it is evident it would not be that much affected by recession. As a matter of fact, this sector may grow as we need to find alternative sources of energy and renewable energy as we are on the verge of getting depleted of the fossil fuels.

So far we saw about all those white collar jobs that are not affected by economic slowdown. How about blue collar jobs? Of course, some of the above services like mining have blue collar jobs and white collar jobs, but what about those sectors with refined blue collar jobs alone?

Skilled Services:

It is recession and your hair won’t stop growing because of it or you can’t cut your hair on your own or your family member could do that for you though you may be thinking of cutting down the frequency of visiting a hairstylist. So skilled service personnel like hairstylists, beauticians, or any skilled job are least affected (though the volumes may have a marginal plunge for hairstylists).

Transportation:

Apart from air transportation, during economic slowdowns, full-time drivers, mechanics and repairers of passenger vehicles are seldom laid off, be it rail, road or water transport as people, moving from one place to another as a part of their daily activities, aren’t going to slow down except for some seasonal variations. Hence any job in the passenger transportation sector isn’t going to get affected.

Repairs and Maintenance:

Regardless of economic conditions, home appliances, heating, air-conditioning, and refrigeration mechanics/repairers aren’t going to get affected as anybody hit by the recession would need them functioning smoothly at any cost. Similarly no worries for even those $100,000 plumbers as pipes/sewages are ought to get clogged irrespective of economic conditions, as is the case for electricians, though these folks may have less work in construction activities.

Badly Hit Sectors:

We have seen those depression-proof sectors; now, what are those sectors that are usually affected by depression? Retail trade, construction, consumer product manufacture, travel and hospitality, securities and investments, and banking are usually hardest hit in a recession as people spend less on luxuries and leisure. So won’t it be better to give the careers in these sectors a last preference?

Beneficiaries of Recession:

Now, who is going to be best benefited from recession? With the enormous rate of proliferation of mobile phones in the developing countries, access to internet is becoming such an easy thing. The availability of basic cellphones has become dirt cheap that anybody could go mobile with just $20 within two minutes (of course a browser compatible mobile will cost a bit more). So any kid could forecast that internet commerce will flourish as people will seclude to their homes in front of TVs, computers and cellphones minimizing outdoor entertainments, travel and luxuries. So while surfing the net, they’re ought to search for bargains for anything they want to buy.

Similarly debt managers, debt collection agents and debt management consultants! Recession means doom days for debtors, and they’re sure to need some guidance. Recessions are tough times for companies as well, and they’re likely to bring in consultants for advice on efficiency and to make the most out of their resources. As those financial numbers get scaled down, people will default payments, and companies will look to debt collectors to recover their costs. So anybody into these fields are going to make money while the recession shines!

Related Articles:

Recession Proofing Tips And Techniques For Current Stint At Job

Tags: depression-proof sectors, recession proof careers, recession proof jobs

10 Responses to “Recession Proof Jobs And Careers At A Glance”

Matthew on October 21st, 2008, at 12:28 am said:

Interesting idea…a recession proof job. I still see thousands of jobs posted on popular employment sites.

http://www.linkedin.com (networking)
http://www.indeed.com (aggregated listings)
http://www.realmatch.com (matches you to jobs)

good luck to those searching for jobs.

AG on November 24th, 2008, at 11:25 pm said:

Teachers are the “laziest”??? Please, you wouldn’t last a day as a teacher!!!

Raj on November 25th, 2008, at 3:14 am said:

@AG: It’s the “stigma” prevailing about teaching job in the society.

Inder P Singh on November 25th, 2008, at 5:54 am said:

The media sector (television etc.) also ought to do well during the recession since the information needs of the people could increase during this entire period.

Raj on November 25th, 2008, at 6:30 am said:

@Inder P Singh: Yes, as I mentioned, “people will seclude to their homes in front of TVs.”

Nikhil Varghese on December 1st, 2008, at 6:53 am said:

Hi,

Interesting writeup!!

One interesting segment of “Recession-Proof Jobs” is that of firms engaged in economic research and analysis. Ironically, their work has increased post recession as individuals, famalies, institutions and corporations are looking up to them for information on how deep the recession is? and when will greener days come back?
These firms have tough times searching for answers to such questions.

Regards,
Nikhil Varghese, CMIE
(New-Delhi)

maricar on January 26th, 2009, at 11:36 am said:

nice post this will give ideas for those newly graduate students searching for a new job to what field they must apply. I also think that the first three sector will not be greatly affected by recession.

Raj on January 30th, 2009, at 2:11 am said:

People will get sick and hungry whether it is recession or not. So the first two sectors are fail proof!

VB on February 4th, 2009, at 8:00 pm said:

energy source like oil drilling company here in Qatar is not stable. They laid off thousands of employee.

Raj on February 5th, 2009, at 3:22 am said:

Yes, the lack of demand for crude, falling oil prices, and scores of foreign employees working in the middle east not only in the oil fields but also other sectors (drivers, carpenters, plumbers, masons, electricians and other blue collar jobs) returning to their hometowns indicates the recession is worse this time with its roots penetrating deep into the economy and has not the spared energy sector and the petroleum countries too! Some of my friends working in oil fields (drilling, refining etc.) in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have returned home and they predict the situation to become more worse in the coming months.