Which are the best jobs and careers that weather a downtrend? Do you know which ones may not last?
When you’re in between jobs or just starting out, one wise move you can make is to consider work that may possibly be immune to economic shifts. And what exactly are these recession proof jobs like? Here are some things you should be looking for:
- Jobs that are in high demand,
- that require special skills,
- that continue to provide goods and services regardless of what goes on with the economy,
- that are found in specific industries that show resistance to downturns,
- that are offered by stable companies that have the foundation to weather financial and market cycles.
I’ve got my own personal story that illustrates what I’ve done to get through some tough economic periods: During the high tech boom of the 1990’s I took a lot of risks and jumped from one employer to another, eventually landing a job at a small startup that wasn’t making any money. But in the early 2000’s, I was one of the numerous casualties of the dot com bust. So can you guess what I did after I got laid off? After a short break, I decided to sign up with a mature, stable and large company that offered me a full time job. Gone were my days as a contractor as I no longer had the nerve to take chances with my paycheck. And there I stayed for a good long four years (the longest I stayed anywhere!) until I decided to leave on my own volition.
Goes to show that when you join a larger, more mature company, you will probably be the most secure as you can ever be as an employee, though there may still be no guarantees. But your risks of job loss are greatly reduced.
How Are Jobs Affected During A Slump?
For those of us on the lookout for work, I thought these additional facts would be helpful: the latest unemployment numbers released some weeks back indicated that certain job sectors were recently negatively impacted,
- Construction
- Professionals: lawyers, architects, management consultants
- Manufacturing
- Retail
- Transportation, Warehousing
while other sectors were actually adding jobs. These articles from PayScale.com and NY Times give us some ideas about the types of jobs that will hold up during hard times:
- Few feds lose their jobs during a recession and most downsizing in the federal government is based on attrition, not filling vacant positions, rather than letting people go.
- Sales and marketing positions and others supporting them are fairly sturdy. Anyone who makes or saves money for a company will be relatively safe.
- Recession proof jobs are those that the population demands regardless, like healthcare and pharmaceuticals. People are getting older, people are getting frailer, and demographics of the population are aging. Biosciences, physical therapy, occupational therapy are recession proof, being in demand and requiring specialized skills.
- Even during boom times no job is fail-safe. But some industries are safer havens than others, experts say, such as education, health care, the federal government, clean technology, information technology, and sales and marketing.
Top White Collar Jobs During A Recession
So if you’re a high school teacher, health care worker or computer engineer, you may be in pretty good shape. This table, reprinted from CNN Money (in conjunction with PayScale.com), shows us which professions provide the best combination of attractive pay along with solid job security.
| JOB | GROWTH RATE | GROWTH* MEDIAN COMP | WHY IT’S SECURE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Financial adviser | 41% | $74,000 | As boomers retire, they’ll need financial hand-holding. |
| Software program manager | 29% | $103,000 | Someone has to prevent complex systems from going kerflooey. |
| Database administrator | 29% | $77,000 | See above. It’s good to be a computer nerd. |
| Physical therapist | 27% | $67,000 | The baby boomers’ backs and knees aren’t getting any younger. |
| Physician assistant | 27% | $84,000 | Managed-care companies love PAs: They’re cheaper than docs. |
| Environmental specialist | 25% | $53,000 | Ever heard of global warming? |
| Hydrologist | 24% | $59,600 | Water is in short supply. People get thirsty. Enough said. |
| College professor | 23% | $79,000 | It’s Econ 101: Demand for schooling is growing. |
| Certified public accountant | 18% | $64,000 | Thank complex tax codes and audit-hungry regulators. |
| Teacher | 12% | $48,000 | Try to get fired from this union job. Just try. |
And if you want more ideas, check out this article that lists 25 careers to pursue during a recession or this piece I wrote last week detailing the steps you can take to recession proof your job and career.
Glad I’m married to a college professor.
I think it’s especially important, during a recession, to diversify income sources as much as possible. This is especially true of one works in a weak sector. What products or services can you offer apart form your main job in order to increase your income? What passive income streams can you build up as a safety net?
Great post! Your posts are always complete and informational.
The recession will be over before anyone can complete the schooling for these professions. Except for maybe the professor, as this person maybe graduating in the middle of the next recession. However, it is a good list for anyone who was already planning on going to school, as most of these professions have been strong for 15 years.
@Mrs. Micah,
Must be nice to get summers off?
@Maria,
Quite valuable advice, thank you! Too many of us are reliant on only one stream of income — the one coming from our jobs. So yes, if we can somehow diversify our income sources, we’d be much more protected during leaner times. Great food for thought.
@Chad,
Some people missed the dot com bust altogether because they were safely ensconced in somewhat “untouchable” jobs. They may not have experienced the highs of the boom, but they were also spared the depths of the bust. Some of these people were my colleagues at the large company I joined after I got laid off. They’re still in the same company after 15 years and are not complaining.
A lot can be said about large, stable companies — the pay may not be extraordinary but the perks are!
This is really interesting. The pay rates seem a little exaggerated. In Arizona, K-12 teachers start around $25,000; top pay is around $50,000, but that’s only after you’ve been with a district for many years and have many continuing ed credits beyond the master’s degree. A person who’s earning that much here as taken as many graduate-level courses as a Ph.D. program would require.
Meanwhile, at my university, I don’t know anyone who’s making 79 grand. Some heavy hitters do that well and better, but they’re not typical. I’d say the average salary is more like $55,000 to $60,000. And if you’re not tenured, your job is less than eternal. Even if you are, administrators dream up ways to lay off tenured people, too.
Professors at public universities are state employees. Because our state legislature hasn’t come to an agreement about the budget, we’re being told that unless a budget is agreed upon by July 2, we will not be paid our next paycheck. So, no, we’re not laid off; we just get to work for free.
The other thing that’s happening on the university level is that for reasons yet unidentified (but probably related to surging tuition prices), enrollment is not rising in the usual inverse proportion to the unemployment rate. Usually people go back to school when recessions occur. That’s not occurring this time. Consequently the universities are suffering, too.
The downturn of the world economy has greatly affected our lives and recession is one great result. Businesses of varying scale try to keep afloat but the sad reality is, a lot of them perish.
Ed: Yeah, but new businesses pop up to take the place of those that “perish”. Uh…. survival of the fittest exists not just in nature; it’s the way the world works eh?