A popular partner at McKinsey & Company’s Brussels office mentored a slew of junior consultants. When asked for tips on how to move ahead, he always replied the same way: “Start acting like a partner if you want to be one.” The flipside to this advice is even more crucial: if you want to avoid being laid off during a recession, you must start acting like a survivor.
The study of survivors’ thoughts shows a perplexing paradox. Though preparing for layoffs necessitates a pessimistic perspective, the best thing you can do in a downturn is to loosen up. Keep your gaze fixed on the eight ball while maintaining a confident and upbeat demeanor. According to research, being enjoyable to be around is quite important. Tiziana Casciaro and Miguel Sousa Lobo’s work was published in an HBR article in June 2005 “While everyone prefers working with a personable superstar to an incompetent jerk, when people need help getting a job done, they’ll choose a congenial colleague over one who is more capable but less lovable, according to “Competent Jerks, Lovable Fools, and the Formation of Social Networks.” We’re not advocating you turn into Jerry Seinfeld; being pleasant and amusing isn’t about causing a riot. Just don’t be the person who’s always grumpy, reminding coworkers of their vulnerability. Who wants to join him in the trenches?
During a recession, do people lose their jobs?
During a recession, there is an uptick in business failures. Various economic theories explain why businesses fail: negative economic shocks, actual resource or credit bottlenecks caused by prior over-expansionary monetary policies, the collapse of debt-based asset price bubbles, or a negative shift in consumer or corporate mood. Whatever the cause, as the recession spreads, more and more businesses reduce or cease operations, resulting in the layoff of employees.
What kind of occupations withstand a downturn?
8 industries with the best job security during a downturn
- Health-care services. People get sick and require medical care regardless of the state of the economy, thus the demand for health-care occupations is fairly stable, even during a downturn.
During a recession, who loses their job?
Women, particularly women of color, have lost more jobs than men in the first ten months of the pandemic, as industries dominated by women have been impacted the hardest. 4 During the recession, women have lost a net of 5.4 million jobs. 5nearly a million more job losses among women than among males. 6 These patterns are exemplified by the employment losses in December: Women of color, Hispanic women, and Asian women accounted for all of the job losses that month, with 154,000 Black women dropping out completely. 7 This push of work losses, combined with the pull of increasing caregiving at home8, has resulted in the first-ever “she-cession,” according to Dr. C. Nicole Mason. 9 The lack of Congress and the federal government to act quickly has only harmed families’ precarious financial security and has the potential to undermine women’s careers and the US economy as a whole.
These consequences, however, are not predetermined. They are the outcome of legislators’ decisions, which usually include decisions not to address systemic disparities, upgrade labor norms, build a strong social safety net, or invest in caregiving. The COVID-19 recession is unlike any other in recent memory, and it will necessitate remedies that diverge from typical recovery strategies. In order to secure a broad and deep recoveryone that is critical to the performance of the entire US economywomen and their families require strong, structural policy changes that prioritize their economic security. In order to achieve a gender-equitable recovery, lawmakers must implement urgent COVID-19 relief as well as the effective, long-term measures suggested in this brief that promote women’s work and caregiving in the long run, such as:
Without these progressive remedies, the status quo will persist, jeopardizing women’s advancement and economic success in the United States.
Women were already struggling to manage work and care before the pandemic
Economic precarity was already a reality for many women and their families prior to the pandemic-induced recession. Women made up 21.4 million of the world’s poorest people in 2018. 10 In 2019, about 11 million children lived in poverty, accounting for 14.4% of all children under the age of 18. 11 By the time the coronavirus pandemic began, women’s labor force participation had not yet recovered to its 2000 peak,12 and workers faced slow wage growth that failed to keep up with productivity development. 13
Long-standing gender biases and inequities contribute to the segregation of women into low-paid occupations14 and the continuing gender wage gap.
15 In 2019, the median annual earnings for full-time year-round working women were $47,299, or 82 percent of men’s wages. 16 Due to the existence of intersecting gender, racial, and ethnic biases, most women of colorparticularly Black, Hispanic, and Native American womenexperience a bigger wage disparity. These groups are also overrepresented in jobs in the service and care industries, which are frequently regarded necessary yet underpaid. 17
The predominant role that women play in caring for their families contributes to their lower salaries. Women are more likely to be burdened with a variety of family caregiving obligations, such as caring for children at home, managing household needs, scheduling appointments and activities, and so on, which costs them money. 18 Many working women, particularly the 64.2 percent of mothers who were the major or co-breadwinners for their families in 2017, lack access to supportive work-family policies that would allow them to work full-time while still caring for their children. 19 In 2019, a large proportion of women worked part-time: 17.3 million, roughly double the number of males working part-time. 20 And 84 percent of these women worked part-time for reasons other than economics, such as family obligations. 21 Women are in this hazardous position due to a lack of legislation in the United States that support both employment and caregiving, which is based on long-held preconceptions and sometimes racist and sexist prejudices that devalue them’s responsibilities and require women to balance it all. 22
Child care has long been underfunded, leaving child care providers with razor-thin profit margins, low-paying child care workers, and many families without access to cheap, high-quality care.
23 In addition, the United States is a global outlier in failing to assure that workers have access to any sort of paid leave. Only 21% of civilian workers had access to paid family leave to care for their families in 2020,24 and Black and Hispanic workers were less likely to have access than white workers. 25 Workers and their families lose $28.9 billion in income per year due to a lack of affordable child care and comprehensive paid family and medical leave, a figure that is certain to climb during the pandemic. 26
Many women of color face particular difficulties, as they are more likely to work in occupations that pay less, offer fewer benefits, and provide less access to child care while managing the combined consequences of racial, ethnic, and gender inequality. Despite the fact that women of color do important economic tasks, they are rarely treated with the dignity that such work demands. 27 At the same time, they provide critical financial assistance to their families in order to help them get by. In 2018, more than two-thirds of Black women and 41.4 percent of Latina mothers, compared to 37 percent of white mothers, were the primary breadwinners for their families. 28 Due to long-standing expectations that they work outside the homeoften in jobs providing care to white familiesblack, Asian, and Hispanic women have higher rates of labor force participation than white women29, but they are less likely to have access to paid leave and workplace flexibility to manage their caregiving responsibilities.
The coronavirus economic crisis has harmed women the most
From employment losses to caring issues, women have been the hardest hit by the pandemic-induced recession. The lack of laws or a social safety net to protect women and families, along with the chaotic and severely defective management of the coronavirus pandemic and the following economic collapse, has only pushed millions of women farther into financial misery.
The pandemic-induced recession is the first to cost women more jobs than men
The recession’s disproportionate impact on women has been obvious and striking from the start. Every prior recession has had an impact on the financial markets or goods-producing industries, where men make up the majority of the workforce, adding to their disproportionate employment loss. 30 The recession caused by the coronavirus is distinct: It has mostly affected the service industry, where women are overrepresented, owing to prolonged occupational segregation. 31 Furthermore, caring obligations have pushed more women out of the workforce than men. Because of these interconnected difficulties, women have lost the majority of their employment for the first time in history during a recession. 32
The pandemic’s forced shutdowns and physical separation, as well as the resulting drop in economic activity, have harmed specific industriesoften low-wage occupations with a lot of consumer interactionin which women are disproportionately employed. In the next months, the recent uptick in cases is expected to accentuate these tendencies. 33 Employees in the leisure and hospitality industry53 percent of whom were womensaw the most job losses during the recession as Americans ceased traveling and staying in hotels, watching live entertainment, and eating out at bars and restaurants. 34 Similarly, as schools closed and shifted to virtual learning, child care providers closed, and non-essential health procedures were halted, workers in the education and health services industrieswhere women make up a staggering 77 percent of the workforcesaw significant job losses, accounting for 13 percent of all jobs lost during the recession. 35 Employees in the federal, state, and local governments have all lost jobs as a result of the decrease in tax revenue. 36 This was especially damaging for women, who made up 58 percent of government employees37, and especially for Black women, who made up over 18 percent of public sector workers38, more than tripling their percentage of the general workforce. 39
During the pandemic-induced recession, women have lost a net of 5.4 million employment, compared to 4.4 million for males. (Refer to Figure 1) This means that women have only reclaimed 55% of the 12.1 million jobs they lost at the start of the pandemic. 40 Nearly two-fifths of unemployed women aged 20 and up had been out of employment for six months or longer. 41
Medical professional
Within the medical field, there are numerous vocations and specialties. This group includes Registered Nurses (RNs), pharmacists, physicians, surgeons, paramedics, dentists, dental assistants, and even veterinarians. People and animals become ill regardless of the economy, thus they will always require the assistance of trained professionals.
Specialized care, therapy, and counseling
Consider elder care, physical therapists, occupational therapy, substance-abuse counseling, chiropractic treatment, home health aides, mental health specialists, social workers, and other professionals who operate in this field. People place a high importance on their health. They will spend money on services that will help them to be productive while also being pain-free. Some of these services are covered by insurance, encouraging consumers to use them even when they are short on cash.
Law enforcement officers
The specific link between crime and economic cycles is difficult to pin down. Some crimes predict a downturn, while others coincide with it, and still others show no link at all. Communities prefer to invest in physical safety for local companies and citizens in any economic scenario, which means that police officers and the professionals who support them are in high demand even during a downturn.
Public utility services
During economic downturns, electric, water, sewage, waste, trash, and recycling services all continue to operate. Utility personnel, after all, are essential to ensuring public order and health. Surprisingly, consultants that serve those utilities appear to get the same benefit. Many cities, for example, are obligated to undertake annual audits of their trash-collection companies. Even in a down economy, consulting businesses that undertake such audits will have work to do.
Financial services
The importance of money mobility explains why financial specialists are always in demand. Accountants, auditors, actuaries, claims adjusters, tax preparers, and insurance underwriters are just a few of the employment available in the financial services industry. Many jobs necessitate professional certificates such as Enrolled Agent (EA), Certified Public Accountant (CPA), or Certified Financial Analyst (CFA) (Chartered Financial Analyst).
Education services
Economic booms come and go, but putting money for the future is always a good idea. Regardless of the economy, jobs in primary education, secondary school, higher education, special education, and adult education are in high demand. Those interested in following this path should be aware that the method education is given is changing. New types of distant and on-demand education are becoming more relevant in addition to traditional classroom educators. As a result, a teaching career might be flexible in terms of both location and delivery manner.
Looking for a job that is recession-proof? A skilled resume writer can reframe your experience in order to help you advance in your job.
How many workers were laid off as a result of the 2008 recession?
The following were the outcomes by year: In 2008, President Bush’s final year in office, the country lost 3.55 million people. President Barack Obama’s first year in office resulted in a loss of $5.05 million. 8.6 million dollars were lost in all.
In a downturn, how do you make money?
During a recession, you might be tempted to sell all of your investments, but experts advise against doing so. When the rest of the economy is fragile, there are usually a few sectors that continue to grow and provide investors with consistent returns.
Consider investing in the healthcare, utilities, and consumer goods sectors if you wish to protect yourself in part with equities during a recession. Regardless of the health of the economy, people will continue to spend money on medical care, household items, electricity, and food. As a result, during busts, these stocks tend to fare well (and underperform during booms).
What business is recession-proof?
Healthcare, food, consumer staples, and basic transportation are examples of generally inelastic industries that can thrive during economic downturns. During a public health emergency, they may also benefit from being classified as critical industries.