But, according to Tara Sinclair, an economics professor at George Washington University and a senior fellow at Indeed’s Hiring Lab, one of the finest investments you can make to recession-proof your life is obtaining an education. Those with a bachelor’s degree or higher have a substantially lower unemployment rate than those with a high school diploma or less during recessions.
“Education is always being emphasized by economists,” Sinclair argues. “Even if you can’t build up a financial cushion, focusing on ensuring that you have some training and abilities that are broadly applicable is quite important.”
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 suffers the most?
The groups who lost the most jobs during the Great Recession were the same ones that lost jobs throughout the 1980s recessions.
Hoynes, Miller, and Schaller use demographic survey and national time-series data to conclude that the Great Recession has harmed males more than women in terms of job losses. However, their research reveals that men have faced more cyclical labor market outcomes in earlier recessions and recoveries. This is partly due to the fact that men are more likely to work in industries that are very cyclical, such as construction and manufacturing. Women are more likely to work in industries that are less cyclical, such as services and government administration. While the pattern of labor market effects across subgroups in the 2007-9 recession appears to be comparable to that of the two early 1980s recessions, it did have a little bigger impact on women’s employment, while the effects on women were smaller in this recession than in previous recessions. The effects of the recent recession were felt most acutely by the youngest and oldest workers. Hoynes, Miller, and Schaller also discover that, in comparison to the 1980s recovery, the current recovery is affecting males more than women, owing to a decrease in the cyclicality of women’s employment during this period.
The researchers find that the general image of demographic patterns of responsiveness to the business cycle through time is one of stability. Which groups suffered the most job losses during the Great Recession? The same groups that suffered losses during the 1980s recessions, and who continue to have poor labor market outcomes even in good times. As a result, the authors conclude that the Great Recession’s labor market consequences were distinct in size and length from those of past business cycles, but not in type.
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.
In a downturn, how do I become a millionaire?
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).
In a downturn, where should I place my money?
Federal bond funds, municipal bond funds, taxable corporate funds, money market funds, dividend funds, utilities mutual funds, large-cap funds, and hedge funds are among the options to examine.
Is it possible for another Great Depression to occur?
The 12-year Great Depression in America began with a crash 72 years ago. On October 24, 1929, the stock market bottomed out, indicating the start of the country’s longest and severe economic downturn. Everyone wants to know if a crash may happen again given that we are in an economic downturn.
Many industries in Washington state were shaken on October 24, dubbed “Black Thursday.” Although the disaster did not have the same impact on Washington as it did on other states, the consequences of the downturn and various government actions hurt certain sectors substantially.
After the 1929 Federal Reserve-industry catastrophe, unemployment in the United States skyrocketed. In the 1930s, the government’s ballooning taxes and regulations left the country entrenched in economic hardship.
Wheat prices in Washington had decreased to.38 cents per bushel by 1932, from $1.83 in the early 1920s. By 1935, the value of Washington farmland and buildings had decreased from $920 million to $551 million, despite a 300 percent increase in county debt statewide and a 36 percent drop in payrolls.
The state’s lumber industry was particularly heavily damaged by the economic downturn. Between 1929 and 1932, per capita lumber consumption in the United States fell by two-thirds. Washington’s annual lumber production fell from 7.3 billion feet to 2.2 billion feet during the same time period. By the end of 1931, at least half of mill workers had lost their jobs.
The Roosevelt administration’s measures accomplished little to boost the lumber business. Individual industries were subjected to tight production limitations and price controls under the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) of 1933. Before the Act was declared unlawful in 1935, it barred the construction of new sawmills and limited individual operators to a set quota of production. More sawmills were erected as a result of failed federal monitoring, and total production per firm declined.
One part of the NIRA significantly increased big labor’s organizing strength and required managers to bargain with unions. Historians now consider the implementation of New Deal measures in the Pacific Northwest as a direct result of the solidification of Washington’s labor movement.
Is it possible for another Great Depression to occur? Perhaps, but it would require a recurrence of the bipartisan and disastrously dumb policies of the 1920s and 1930s.
Economists now know, for the most part, that the stock market did not trigger the 1929 crisis. It was a symptom of the country’s money supply’s extraordinarily unpredictable changes. The Federal Reserve System was the main culprit, having sparked a boom in the early 1920s with ultra-low interest rates and easy money. By 1929, the central bank had raised rates so high that the boom had been choked off, and the money supply had been reduced by one-third between 1929 and 1933.
A recession was turned into a Great Depression by Congress in 1930. It slashed tariffs to the point where imports and exports were effectively shut down. In 1932, it quadrupled income tax rates. Franklin D. Roosevelt, who ran on a platform of less government, gave America far more than he promised. His “New Deal” increased taxes (he once proposed a tax rate of 99.5 percent on incomes above $100,000), penalized investment, and suffocated business with regulations and red tape.
Washington, like all states, is subject to the whims of federal policymakers. And the recipe for economic depression remains the same: suffocating market freedom, crushing incentives with high tax rates, and overwhelming firms with suffocating regulations.
The 1929 stock market crash and the accompanying Great Depression are worth remembering not just because they caused so much suffering in Washington and abroad, but also because, as philosopher George Santayana warned, “Those who cannot recall history are destined to repeat it.”
Lawrence W. Reed is the director of Michigan’s Mackinac Center for Public Policy and an adjunct scholar at Seattle’s Washington Policy Center. Jason Smosna, a WPC researcher, contributed to this commentary.
How long do economic downturns last?
A recession is a long-term economic downturn that affects a large number of people. A depression is a longer-term, more severe slump. Since 1854, there have been 33 recessions. 1 Recessions have lasted an average of 11 months since 1945.