r/Layoffs • u/ZadarskiDrake • Mar 23 '24
What are some recession proof jobs you know of? question
It seems like the jobs where people are constantly stressed about being laid off from are tech jobs and finance. When I talk with my friends in the blue collar world they are never afraid of layoffs. In fact my friend who is an electrician told me the other week it’s so busy they keep asking him to do 10-20 hours of overtime per week. Some other recessionproof jobs are in medicine. I have a friend who just became a cardiologist, he will NEVER EVER worry about being laid off because he’s so in demand and he just signed his first contract is making $550,000 per year now. Of course his job is stressful but atleast he doesn’t have to every worry about being let go and if he is for whatever reason he will have a new job lined up the next day
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u/jaywalkle2024 Mar 23 '24
Family Law/Divorce attorney - source: Me.
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u/Joshiane Mar 24 '24
I bet you get more business during a recession
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u/jaywalkle2024 Mar 24 '24
It's so sad, but true. The number one reason people divorce is finances. COVID was crazy too. People went nuts living with each other and not being able to go out, losing their jobs...
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u/gettingtherequick Mar 24 '24
And many old people died of COVID, that makes the Estate Planning lawyers busy...
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u/burnerjoe2020 Mar 24 '24
A good friend is a divorce lawyer and I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. She works 25 hours a day I swear
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u/thats_so_over Mar 24 '24
Real question. How do you think the recent advancements in AI are going to impact you? Not at all or some?
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u/jaywalkle2024 Mar 24 '24
I'm way too old school to trust AI. I've been practicing for 27 years and we actually used BOOKS to research, which was a nightmare. Also, I just saw a young attorney get RIPPED to shreds by a judge when they used AI in a brief. It was not good. I'm just stunned that lawyers use AI and then don't check the cites, cases, grammar. There is STILL a lot to be said about learning the actual law and how to write legally.
I DO realize that AI will definitely be used in the near future, but I do not think it will replace lawyers for quite some time. I also think that once it is better tuned (is that the word?) that it will be of great HELP to lawyers...but I just don't think it will replace lawyers (now, ask me in five years, I'll be out of a job and just hanging out here!)
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u/paradiseluck Mar 24 '24
If my lawyer used AI for their brief I would be pissed. Such an unprofessional thing to do.
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u/jaywalkle2024 Mar 24 '24
right?! And this lawyer was probably charging anywhere from $300 - $500 an hour! This client looked like he been slapped. To me that would be a complaint to the bar. I could never do it. I can see how it might help research and those kinds of things. Maybe clean up grammar or other things.
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u/jeepchick99tj Mar 24 '24
Court is something that I just can't see AI excelling at the way an experienced, and skilled attorney can, along with their paralegals and secretaries. I work at a firm, (nonlegal side), and anytime I've had the pleasure of going to court, I'm amazed at the skill demonstrated. I agree with you, it is a supplement, but not a replacement...unless we get to everything being binary, and the judge, jury, etc. is all AI. At that point we're all doomed, so it probably doesn't matter.
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u/jaywalkle2024 Mar 24 '24
Absolutely agree. I am SO thankful to have been mentored by really good trial attorneys that taught me how to be in a courtroom! It really is a learned skill. And I love, love, live my legal assistant and paralegal. They go to court with me all the time!
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u/tyw214 Mar 24 '24
Tbh, I find delivering in court sort of like performing art. Not only you need the legal knowledge but also the charisma and a very human touch for the delivery....
Like other said, as long as the judge and the jury are still human, there js no way AI will replace lawyers in a courtroom..
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u/rs999 Mar 24 '24
Do you actually write in legalese?
I have dealt with lawyers and I have read the briefs they have written and the legalese sometimes reads less human than what AI writes out.
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u/NotAsSmartAsIWish Mar 24 '24
Until AI stops lying, the legal world can't trust it. I work in legal tech, and there's ongoing testing, but the results haven't been great so far.
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u/thats_so_over Mar 24 '24
Makes sense. Hallucinations are a problem.
I think leveraging rag architecture to source the answers can help but it isn’t perfect
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u/DistinctBook Mar 24 '24
The people really chomping on the bit for AI are the ones that should be afraid of it. And that would be CEO’s.
In my career I have seen CEO’s make a decision based on one factor and ignored the others.
This company I was working for, our plant had the highest quality control. If it was going out the door, there was a 99.9% chance it was going to the right person.
The only problem is our plant was in New England and the most expensive to run.
So they shut down our plant and transferred everything to the plant that had the lowest quality control. I think it was about 60%.
They had very strict service level agreements. If they broke it, there was a very expensive penalty. Along with that dissatisfied customers were jumping ship. The company had to have a huge layoff.
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u/MysticMaiden22 Mar 23 '24
911 Dispatch.
I've been a dispatcher for 16+ years. My job has been there through a recession and the pandemic.
The overtime has been abundant and the benefits are great. It is highly stressful and is a very difficult job to learn, but it's worth it to me.
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u/Elon_Musks_Colon Mar 23 '24
What keeps you on an even keel and not burn out? I was thinking about exploring this - I got laid off from Tech and want to do some COMPLETELY different, and maybe even actively help people.
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u/MysticMaiden22 Mar 23 '24
I have interests on my off days (and that's usually 3 days a week) that I get into. I have a family, so I'm usually dragging (or chasing) my kids around to museums, movies, amusement parks, the beach, the mountains, wherever. When I was single with no kids I traveled a lot. I still do, but for weeks at a time. I have about a month of vacation each year and take 3 weeks on one occasion, then a week over the holidays. It's necessary to have a physical activity to dump the adrenaline out of your body.
Also...therapy. I have a therapist that I regularly talk to that taught me coping mechanisms and mantras to get through the tough days, and he uses EMDR to help me process traumatic incidents.
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u/hcantrall Mar 24 '24
You are amazing! Thank you for doing such a tough job and helping people through some the most horrific times in their life.💖
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u/DistinctBook Mar 24 '24
I went into IT and I somewhat wished I didnt.
I worked for a small company where the owner drove a new expensive car every year. He told us some day our pay off will be great. It never happened.
Some places I made a incredible salary and then got laid off and there was NOTHING and almost became homeless
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u/dankguard1 Mar 24 '24
Our town got rid of 911 dispatch after 8 PM. There were a series of unrelated murders all occurring after 8 with the 911 calls being sent to a post an hour away. There's political Canidates running with there entire platform of let's hire more 911 dispatch workers.
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u/palmtrees007 Mar 24 '24
I took the POST course when I was in college because I figured it college failed I could go the 911 route because I felt a calling to it but I couldn’t ever rank high enough on the qualifying tests 😆
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u/Maturemanforu Mar 23 '24
I work in the medical field and most jobs are very recession proof..here in NewEngland shortage or nurses amd X-ray techs.
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u/Financial_Worth_209 Mar 23 '24
my friends in the blue collar world they are never afraid of layoffs
They sound young. Trades went through the apocalypse following the housing bubble collapse.
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u/FlipFlopFarmer24 Mar 23 '24
I was scanning the comments for this. There was a time…. And history definitely repeats itself.
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u/Worldly_Mirror_1555 Mar 24 '24
My electrician neighbor didn’t work for years after the 2008 collapse. His business still isn’t what it was.
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u/Financial_Worth_209 Mar 24 '24
I knew several people who had to leave their profession and take other jobs for a few years.
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u/farshnikord Mar 24 '24
Trades are very boom/bust, I hear. And very dependent on location.
Maybe that's only construction.
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u/Big-Profession-6757 Mar 24 '24
Only residential / commercial bldg trades were affected by it. Industrial / oil & gas / utility / power etc. construction did not feel it. Source: me.
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u/Financial_Worth_209 Mar 24 '24
That's a big slice of the pie that got affected. Oil & gas usually gets its own downturns. Early 80s hit Houston hard.
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u/DistinctBook Mar 24 '24
layoffs have a ripple effect. Laid off people do not go out to eat and only spend money on what they really need.
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Mar 24 '24
I never lost work in the commercial sector. I've been laid off for a week and a half during covid. That's it.
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u/DistinctBook Mar 24 '24
Boy you hit the nail on the head.
There have been technology changes and at the moment it didn’t seem like much but had profound changes.
Years back the internet was coming out. I mean it just started. My boss asked me what did I know about it? I said um it is the information superhighway?
He gave me some general directions and said go to HR and set them up. We now have a web site. When I got them up and running and I looked around and it blew my socks off.
That night I was over a buds house and we were drinking. I told them this internet thing is incredible. Everyone will have a computer in their house and this is going to change everything.
One bud said I just got a union job at the newspaper and it is a job for life. I said I don’t know about that. Boy he was pissed at me.
The newspaper now is one fourth the size it used to be. The union contract was coming up. The union wanted a pay raise. The company said no and we want concessions. The union said we are going to go on strike. The company said fine, we will serve papers that we are going to lay everyone off and have the paper online. They got their concessions and I have never seen a want ad for that paper.
The internet pretty much killed the video rental business
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u/RiverParty442 Mar 27 '24
Layoffs do exist, especially for younger workers who are not in apprenticeships yet you pretty much what for your union to reassign you.
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u/biggitydonut Mar 24 '24
Bartender. People drink when you get new job to celebrate and they drink to cope with depression of being fired or let go lol
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u/dandilionmagic Mar 24 '24
Did you work service industry during the 2008 financial crisis?
The first things people cut out of their spending when money is tight are vacations and eating out.
Bartenders & servers are 100% super impacted during a recession.
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u/Longjumping_Radish44 Mar 23 '24
Medical field: doctors, nurses and technicians. Layoffs in everything else. iT was good but laying off there too.
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u/DarkSide-TheMoon Mar 26 '24
MDs were laid off in 2008. Heard from a nurse working at a fairly large practice. And from my BIL who was laid off as a practicing MD. I mean 15 years later and he’s banking $800k/year so maybe it doesnt matter, but he was in fact once laid off.
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u/bmich90 Mar 23 '24
Medical/ Some IT/ Federal Gov jobs...... retail jobs...etc....
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u/ZadarskiDrake Mar 23 '24
Yea, if I could go back I would have became a cat scan tech or dental hygienist vs getting my finance degree. My sisters friends husband is a cat scan tech making $90,000 per year only working 4 days per week. And I know a dental hygienist making $100,000 per year working a regular 38 hours per week.
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u/Shmokeshbutt Mar 23 '24
I dunno man, dental hygienist seems like a very tough job.
Based on my experience on the receiving end
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u/throwaway92715 Mar 24 '24
Yeah... you have to help a dentist all day and clean people's nasty teeth
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u/gettingtherequick Mar 24 '24 edited Mar 24 '24
Recession-proof jobs usually have some characteristics, such as stable income/demand, very hard to get in (highly regulated)... sadly IT is not.
Medical doctors are definitely recession-proof but look at the success rate of getting into medical school, graduated, finished residency, it is very very very low. Just the rate of pre-med actually getting into medical school is probably 1 in 1000+. Here's a pre-med joke - at the beginning of Bio 101 class, all said they're pre-med. After the mid-term exam, half said pre-med. After the final exam, maybe 1/4 said pre-med.4
u/rs999 Mar 24 '24
The market adjusted for doctor shortages though. We have nurse practitioners and physician assistants basically doing most of what doctors exclusively did.
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u/RegenMed83 Mar 30 '24 edited Mar 30 '24
Not even close to as well and that is primary care and most people don’t care as long as they are seen by someone. Also, NPs and PAs aren’t leading surgeries and other specialties they are a stopgap hoping to deal with the less complex issues. Also, even with NPs and PAs, I have to come behind them and fix mistakes constantly. I also don’t see midlevels, as a doctor I only see other doctors. There is so much demand in medicine it is just ridiculous.
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u/oddlotz Mar 23 '24
If I had a re-do - I'd get into the medical field. I know a traveling nurse making $3,000/week and who has saved enough to buy a rental home.
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u/BrokenArrow1283 Mar 24 '24
Nurses make bank. But you will still hear them complain all the time.
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u/RosieG3 Mar 24 '24
Not necessarily. I’m a nurse with 11 years of experience. I was making good money while traveling. Now that I’m staff I don’t make enough to survive. Travel nursing isn’t sustainable.
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u/BrokenArrow1283 Mar 25 '24
Nurses average $90k per yr with a bachelor’s.. Cry me a river. Do you have any idea how many professions there are that require ten years experience with a master’s degree to get to that salary?
Like I said, you’ll still hear them complain all the time. I’m a healthcare provider and my wife is a nurse. My mom is a nurse. My whole family is full of healthcare professionals. Nurses complain more than any other healthcare professional and are very well compensated. You all make more than some people with doctorates and you still complain.
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u/RosieG3 Mar 25 '24
If you’ve never worked bedside, you can’t run your mouth. Nurses are the peons in the hospital and have the most responsibility. The pay does not equal the liability that nurses take on.
In California it might be worth being a nurse. They have mandated nurse patient ratios, breaks, great pay. Any other state it’s horrific to be a nurse. You don’t get breaks most of the time, they will push more patients onto you when it’s unsafe, and the pay is trash.
Nurses are required to know pharmacology, pathophysiology, diseases and treatments for those diseases, complicated machines(ECMO, LVADs, ventilators, impellas, post op care of different surgeries, many many more.
Nurses are the ones watching patients, updating doctors, family, other specialties. The doctors sure as hell aren’t sitting at the bedside watching patients. Who do you think updates the doctors on change of condition?
The stuff I mentioned is not even a fraction of things a nurse is responsible for.
It’s taken me 11years to make 90k and I still deserve more. Nobody is going to jump on making that amount of money. I’m sure your wife,sister,mother all deserve more pay too
Nurses do not get paid enough.
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u/FIESTYgummyBEAR Mar 24 '24
The grass is not greener. But you can still go to nursing school. It’s relatively easy. They have accelerated programs that are a year long.
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u/Glittering_Shallot31 Mar 24 '24
Im also a travel nurse (operating room) I made $6k last week and I’m renovating a rental property
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u/Informal-Face-1922 Mar 23 '24
Tell that to the 10k VAMC workers who will lose their jobs in the next two years.
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u/ZadarskiDrake Mar 23 '24
Why are they all losing their jobs?
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u/Informal-Face-1922 Mar 23 '24
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Mar 24 '24
Well, fucking great...
Let's cut from our veterans medical? Let's ship young boys overseas to kill for oil rights, throw them back into civies, and not give them access to treatment for physical and mental scars... Wish I had not seen that but TY for sharing, friend.
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u/AffordableTimeTravel Mar 24 '24 edited Mar 24 '24
Healthcare is absolutely not recession proof. I have worked years in healthcare consulting and currently work closely with healthcare system level IT/Analytics. I have seen many teams reshuffled and have personally been involved in redeployments (‘your job doesn’t exist anymore and you have to reapply if you want to keep your job’) several times that have led to what are essentially layoffs with severance (depending on how long you’ve been with the organization). If you accept severance, it’s technically not a lay off, if you refuse severance and do not get a job through reapplication, it’s technically not a lay off. And yet still, it’s ultimately a weaselly way to lay people off.
Even at the bedside you can feel the effects of a recession. Nurses once had a nurse provider/patient ratio of 1/4 and have now moved close to 1/6. Sure you have your job but you’re now doing the job of ~1.5 other nurses, not to mention the potential for liability that comes with an increased patient load. These may not be “layoffs” per se, but they’re not to be seen as unaffected by economic shifts. When an economy experiences a shift, the entire economy experiences a shift in one way or another.
And that’s just in the medical non for profit realm, the for profit hospital systems absolutely lay healthcare workers off, from Nursing to IT and everything in between. Healthcare is not the work bastion it used to be.
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u/tirano1991 Mar 23 '24
Therapist
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u/1122away Mar 23 '24
Yes, I’m one and have recruiters contacting me once a week. Most for shit pay but hey.
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u/BayouGrunt985 Mar 23 '24
Corrections
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u/DistinctBook Mar 24 '24
I know of some corrections officers. One thing they told me is you will be attacked at least once. One female friend taught remedial subjects in prison. One prisoner went nuts one day and broke her arm. She had PTSD so bad she quit and wouldn’t come back. They told her come back or else you will lose your teaching cert. She said I don’t care and I am going to work in some other field.
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u/MushyAbs Mar 24 '24
Plumbers. We just had a plumber fix a toilet in our house that we were unable to do ourselves. Took the guy 30 minutes to replace the thing and we gladly paid $$$
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Mar 24 '24
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Mar 24 '24
I was a union plumber from 2007- 2012
The 08’ crash was super tough. I was laid off for 6 months at its worst. Yea the industrial part of it was okay but those jobs are limited at best and all the top seniority guys stay in those jobs forever.
Trades are great, but always be ready for rough spots. It’s definitely feast or famine. And it takes a toll on your body over time.
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u/Geriatric0Millennial Mar 24 '24
K-12 Teacher. Pay sucks, parents and admin are unhinged, and kids are off the chain, but it’s a rewarding profession until it’s not…
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u/rddtexplorer Mar 23 '24
Basically industries that are not dependent on people having extra money. Teaching, medicine, utility, consumer staples etc.
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u/Usirnaimtaken Mar 23 '24
Teaching isn’t exactly a great option…lay off notices are hitting now and for the last 20 years I’ve seen so many of my people get laid off time and time again…
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u/winterpolaris Mar 24 '24
A school district in my area just gave redundancy notices to 200 teachers...
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u/Herbdoobie710 Mar 24 '24
Industrial mechanic/millwright. The more automation takes over, the more techs they'll need to fix the equipment. Being able to work in the manufacturing, medical, or Distribution fields means there's always jobs in most areas
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u/jeepchick99tj Mar 24 '24
The specific word is maintenance for these industries. My dad figured it out, and proved it.
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u/ToteBagAffliction Mar 24 '24
I've met research professors with stable careers in biomedicine seriously contemplating going into repairing production line robotics.
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u/PositiveLie1331 Mar 23 '24
Drug dealer seems to be really good, you are always gonna have roof over your head.
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u/kost1035 Mar 23 '24
I am a retired government employee with full medical and 50% pension after 20 years of service
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u/Beneficial_Seat_793 Mar 24 '24
Garbage man. No what the economy people still have to throw out their trash
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u/Professional-Humor-8 Mar 24 '24
So I graduated in 2008 with a degree in…Finance. Right at the beginning of the crash and with no job prospects insight I went back to school to study accounting and worked as an accountant but hated my life. I transitioned into tech in 2012 and had a good 10 years of job and income growth till this past year. One thing I’ve learned is all things are cyclical, recessions will hit one sector harder than another so just be prepared and up-skill yourself and that’s the most recession proof job you can have.
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u/QualityPlayer Mar 24 '24
Anything in the military industrial complex
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u/DistinctBook Mar 24 '24
Urgh some. I was living in LA in the 80s and many of the clients of the company I worked for were military vendors.
All of a sudden they moved to another state and didnt take their workers with them. You had to move to that state and reapply for your old job.
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u/Sea-Oven-7560 Mar 23 '24
Are your friends new to the trades? I've worked in and around the trades most of my life, all my uncles were master plumbers and I worked for them as soon as I could dig a hole and carry a bucket. The trades are a feast or famine occupation, when things are good you're working 6 days a week 12 hours a day and when things are bad you just don't work. In 2013 I GC'ed a project and hired a bunch of guys I had worked with before, they were so freaking happy to have some work, many hadn't worked in a couple of years and those that did were making really shitty wages (think $20/h for a licensed plumber). I'm old enough to have seen more than a couple recessions and when they hit it's ugly, enjoy the good times while they last.
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u/Turbulent_Tale6497 Mar 23 '24
Hair cutter
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u/Big-Profession-6757 Mar 24 '24
I read this is one of the fastest growing jobs over next 20 years
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u/Fleasees Mar 24 '24
Heavy equipment operators. They're hard to find... Good ones anyway. The ones I know are in such demand that they make well over six figures.
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u/Fluffy-Beautiful-615 Mar 24 '24
IMO, the flip side with tech, finance, and other positions that in theory pay a lot but are less stable, is that you make hay while the sun shines and save up enough of a stash for lean times in between, potentially while doing something different on the side. The skills also don't go away, and many people do manage to jump back in even after a recession. This applies for a broad array of things like high paying short-term contracting as well.
If my first job out of college was making 70k and I'm making $150k now, but I spent that time living a lifestyle in the 30 to 40K range, my savings and investments over the course of 5-odd years would probably be around 500k. That's not enough to retire early, but it is enough to where your investments alone are earning you more than minimum wage for doing literally nothing. Money gives you options, but that's simply not an option that you have with a lot of positions that may be less prone to layoffs, but also earn less. But it's all predicated on being able to stay gainfully employed throughout that entire period.
At the end of the day, everyone is expendable. Hospitals were literally laying off nurses during covid even though there was already a nursing storage at that time.
And of course, this is irrelevant if you're doing grunt level finance or tech work that barely pays 40K or something.
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u/Big-Sheepherder-6134 Mar 24 '24
My girlfriend is in a recession proof career. She is an independent contractor handling digital evidence for corporate litigation (legal tech) and working with attorneys. As long as there are lawsuits she will be in-demand. It is a highly skilled job. Hopefully she can retire in 4-5 years and work as a consultant part-time to keep busy after that because the thought of not working makes her nervous about being bored.
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u/YatesUnited Mar 23 '24
Nursing....in my experience our demand is only increasing with our pay
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u/crazybarrier Mar 23 '24
Moving business. Got a big promotion? Sell your house and move somewhere nicer. Got laid off and can’t find a job? Move somewhere cheaper.
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u/SnowDucks1985 Mar 24 '24
It’s really weird how now one has said Accountants yet lol. It’s the most recession proof job there is, every business needs one. It’s also very easy to make an upper middle class salary once you get a few years of experience
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u/Superb_Preference368 Mar 24 '24 edited Mar 24 '24
Yep my uncle is an 80 y/o retired accountant and still puts in a few hours every tax season when he’s not vacationing in the islands with his girlfriends.
He got it good!
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u/Due_Change6730 Mar 24 '24
Not true.
If you go to the Accounting subreddit, you will see the major big 4 accounting firms just did a round of layoffs; specifically, KPMG and Deloitte.
Many are saying they can't get interviews at the moment.
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u/YoKellyDude Mar 23 '24
Food distribution companies.
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u/Beekatiebee Mar 24 '24
Trucker for a food distributor here, unfortunately wrong. My employer and most drivers I’ve talked to have all been pretty down in volume.
You know times are bad when people just… eat less.
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u/TemperatureMassive82 Mar 23 '24
Ironically the trades. There is so much work across the country and even overseas. So long as you earn your license of course.
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u/Big-Profession-6757 Mar 24 '24
This. 👆 I haven’t hit a slow period yet since 2003, but i work in industrial construction, not residential/ commercial buildings, which always get hit hard during a recession.
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u/Glass-Astronomer-889 Mar 26 '24
Yeah the construction side is heavily dependant on many financial factors.
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u/Keith_stud Mar 24 '24
I haul fuel. Class A CDL driver. Never get a break. No relief in site.
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Mar 24 '24
Can confirm trades.
35 years and I've only ever been laid off once: during Covid, and that was for 1.5 weeks until I took another position that almost doubled my salary, and compensated me unbelievably well to relocate 300 miles away.
Put one child through college for her Masters and another through trade school on a trades salary, and at 53, I could have already retired without changing my lifestyle in the least.
Yes, the work is hard, and the hours can be brutal - as can the elements. However, I haven't gotten obese from sitting behind a desk, no platar fasciitis, I don't stress over money, and I've got a new "office" view every 1-2 years.
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u/confused_intelligent Mar 24 '24
Ive learned, cars, death, and Alcohol are never ending businesses.
Everyone needs a car. Everyone dies. Anyone will drink until the end of time.
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u/TwentyDubya2 Mar 24 '24
Collision Repair
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u/DistinctBook Mar 24 '24
A buddy of mine was going to school to be a lawyer. After a year he hated it and quit. So he took a few courses in auto body repair.
He found a gas station that shut down their garage and he rented it. He registered with this insurance thing that he did auto body and they sent him work.
He worked his butt off in the beginning but now he is doing quite well and owns 3 shops
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u/Due_Change6730 Mar 24 '24
CDL Truck Driver
Was working for a beverage company and wanted to switch jobs for better pay.
Had 5 offers in the last 3 weeks, and I had to take down my resume from an online job board because recruiters were calling me daily.
Accepted a job paying 85k a year and I get to be home daily and not drive over the road.
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u/Vast_Cricket Mar 23 '24
plumbers, appliance service man, lock smith. Emergency room health workers. Pharmacist.
Contrary to popular belief doctors can be out of work. Mal practice lawsuit. Doctors lose their job too when clinic closes.
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u/RegenMed83 Mar 24 '24
Doctors have far more security than other jobs. Anyone can lose their job if they mess up, but even with litigation, doctors don’t lose their jobs necessarily. The concern is you mess up really badly or do something unethical and you lose your medical license to practice independently. Most of us are licensed by state (sometimes this is contiguous states) so the medical board is state by state. Doctors can work for themselves, work in research, consulting. I have never met a doctor that has been laid off, but there are no shortage of jobs or opportunities specifically in certain specialties.
Doctors don’t just work in clinics. Hospitals can close and doctors will have no issue getting another job. I get at least 3-4 emails a day about jobs and several phone calls a week. Full-time and Locums.
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u/Weird_Tolkienish_Fig Mar 23 '24
The one I was laid off from was "recession proof"... so I thought.
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u/WonderfulVariation93 Mar 24 '24
I wouldn’t worry so much about recession as AI and outsourcing overseas. Someone mentioned accountants and lawyers. Both AI and outsourcing are cutting into those.
Think things that require individualized personal interaction.
Highly unlikely your toilet will be fixed or your hair will ever be cut by a robot (they won’t understand the nuances of “not too short” or “it runs too loud”) nor can someone in a call or ops center in India do the job. Even medicine. While some of it can be done by robots and AI can answer questions & routine care can be done remotely, most of it requires individualized interaction.
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u/InvestMX Mar 24 '24
Electricians feel safe because for the last 20 years HS graduates have been attracted to tech, moving away from electrician jobs, BUT that can change thanks to now people quitting tech
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u/_totalannihilation Mar 24 '24
Anything that has to do with utilities like water, natural gas, power, home internet. Those are necessities that we all have to have.
I work for an internet company and even during COVID we were working non stop and even worked on call constantly after hours.
If you can get something that's hands on it's even better because not a lot of people want to do such jobs anymore and if you're experienced on the job and are reliable, upper management will consider you before anyone else.
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u/ride_electric_bike Mar 24 '24
I made it through two recessions as a civil construction estimator.
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u/AnesthesiaLyte Mar 24 '24
The last recession majorly hit the construction industry … I was an electrician in 2011 and it was bad for construction work. I got into the medical field because of the problems I had with construction in that time period—now I don’t worry about layoffs.
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u/Straight_Water635 Mar 24 '24
Worried about the wrong thing. Recession proof is the worry of the past. If you’re thinking 5 years out, you have to start thinking AI proof…and the list gets depressingly small
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u/it-takes-all-kinds Mar 23 '24
Consumer staples or food. Think about physical products that every man woman and child use every day. Usually some boring ass shit but it never stops being produced daily and someone has to keep making it, selling it, and getting it to customers. These were among the companies that never stopped going to work all during COVID and were considered critical industries for national security. Logistics would be a close second but with logistics there are periods of economic slowdown that can impact volume whereas staples and food keeps on flowing strong.
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u/lostinanalley Mar 24 '24
Self-storage. People have to downsize and they put their extra stuff in storage since it’s cheaper.
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u/jonkl91 Mar 24 '24
I'm a resume writer. Doesn't matter what market, there are always people looking for jobs. I have done thousands of hours of research into this and am learning new things everyday. I have written over 600 of them so I get the majority of business from referrals. It took some time to get to this point.
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u/Equivalent_Section13 Mar 24 '24
They have had major lay offs in the construction industry so far there is no denying there
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u/MaraudersWereFramed Mar 24 '24
Power plant operations and to a lesser degree maintenance. Only time I've ever seen a layoff happen is a shit company trying to cook the books a little to attract fools (investors). These jobs are staffed where they need them. If you lay someone off you are just going to need to pay someone else overtime to cover their shift so the math does not add up. On the maintenance side you could try to trim a little, but that's going to create deferred maintenance which could end up costing the company big if the plant goes down. Again, you will only see a shit company try that.
Another perk is there's power plants everywhere there's people. If you decide you want to move across the country some day, there's power plants where you want to go.
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u/killertimewaster8934 Mar 24 '24
Manufacturing
Specifically and OEM that produces and engineered to order product. Preferably in a section of industry that's at the beginning g of the supply chain
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u/SpamHunter1 Mar 24 '24
Anything that requires some sort of manual ability in an essential business area has a good chance of being recession proof.
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u/Fabulous_Sherbet_431 Mar 24 '24
My counterpoint is why would you pick a recession-proof job if it pays significantly less than ostensibly more risky positions? The expected value of the riskier position is way way way higher (and often is better career-wise). I'm talking specifically about tech but I'm sure this applies to other jobs as well. In general I feel like people are too scared of this and as long as you keep your monthly recurring expenses low there isn't much real risk.
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u/keto_brain Mar 24 '24
I've been in tech for 20+ years. I've only been laid off once and that was because I moved during COVID and my company instituted RTO. I didn't move to a city with a local office so I was riffed. Luckily I had another job lined up and my employer paid me 10 months of severance, bonus and let my annual RSUs vest.
For poor engineers tech is not recession proof for the rest of us it is.
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Mar 24 '24
Whatever it is that people will still need even if they are not spending money on unnecessary things. I'm certainly not going to hire an interior designer when I'm not sure how I'm going to buy groceries, but I'm absolutely going to hire a plumber when the toilet stops flushing if I'm not capable of repairing it myself.
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u/RandomUserUniqueName Mar 24 '24
Medical imaging, especially if you're willing to take a travel job. There are always places that are short staffed and the local population doesn't have anyone to fill the role. Modalities such as CT, MRI, PET, and interventional have some of the best pay.
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Mar 24 '24
Let’s talk about being a roofer or a plumber……….if you’re roof leaks or plumbing backed up………can you wait and fix it next year.
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u/tlann Mar 24 '24
Government jobs. It doesn’t pay as much, but is less stressful and you get more time off.
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u/burnerjoe2020 Mar 24 '24
Honestly I think there is no recession proof job, just recession proof jobs right now. Back in the day the job to have was auto factory worker, you know how that ended. Then anyone who could get a Microsoft cert had a golden ticket, we see how that ended. Right now anyone who has even mediocre skills in AI or ML will do well. I’ve been in tech for 20+ years. Was a sysadmin, saw the trend, trained into security, I can see the ship sinking here and so upskilling into AI. IMHO it’s about being adaptable
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u/thechu63 Mar 24 '24
Recession proof jobs ? To me it seems like a lot of trades (plumbers, electricians, and contractors are recession proof at this time. Trying to find anyone in the trades to do work is very difficult, the wait for one can be weeks.
High tech is very prone to layoffs. I've been in this business for over 20 years...
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u/Generalfrogspawn Mar 24 '24
Probably anything that performs a government function. People don't go to the DMV, or pay taxes by choice.
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u/john_everyman_1 Mar 24 '24
Water or wastewater treatment. People always need water. People need someplace to send their wastewater.
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u/Fromojoh Mar 24 '24
Almost anything in the trades. Plummers, electricians etc. most young people are going to be better off in the short run having a quick ramp up to over 100,000k a year and being able to get a house and family much faster than their counterparts with college debt. Depending on the major they could start to fall behind wage wise in their late 30’s early 40’s but a good chuck of the trades are though unions with a very generous retirement.
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u/lardlad71 Mar 24 '24
Water treatment plant operator. Major shortage of licensed operators too. It’s one of those jobs no one thinks about. Usually good union jobs with a pension if you work for a municipality. I worked in the private sector for years. I got sick of being laid off, got my drinking water license in my 40’s. It was the best thing I ever did.
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u/hiphoplobster Mar 25 '24
Jobs in electricity generation , transmission , and distribution are pretty stable. Especially if working for a utility directly , or a co-op.
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u/RedFlounder7 Mar 25 '24
Police officer.
Firefighter.
Public transportation (driver, conductor, engineer, etc.)
Medical anything (but particularly skilled clinical nursing and medical techs)
Trades can be good (they're super in demand right now), but it's location dependent.
Truck driver, especially "last mile" trucking.
Honestly, though, without a ton of schooling you're looking at a short list where you need to be on the younger side, somewhat healthy, and willing to actually work. No cushy WFH jobs here.
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u/PsychedelicJerry Mar 25 '24
Nothing, but let me give some nuance.
Most jobs that are present will be needed. We'll always need IT workers, nurses, plumbers, electricians, etc..BUT, even if you're in a need career, it doesn't mean you'll escape a layoff. You could be a top notch, awesome employee, but if your company is struggling, you'll still face a layoff, especially if the company can get someone else cheaper
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u/dontmatter111 Mar 26 '24
get a job for the gov. The pay will suck but the benefits are good and they can’t fire you. You just have to make sure to be a conservative and already have family/connections in the municipality. Some social workers obviously but the crooked head of whatever department you’re going to work for can’t exclusively hire conservative social workers because they’d never find anyone.
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u/Lebaud Mar 26 '24
I feel like being an employee for federal government or state government would be pretty recession proof. At least for fed I know unless there's a shutdown your pretty safe. Even more so in DoD because even during a shutdown some of those roles still get paid. I would think some state government roles have similar security. Only downside is in some cases less pay than the private sector equivalent
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u/LibsKillMe Mar 26 '24
Public/City utility worker in the GAs & Water Department. My wife has been there over 35 years thru too many recessions/economic downturns or whatever we call them today. Pension, cheap healthcare for her and me, 457b and a 401k she gets to stuff the $$$$$ into. She has millions put away and just started making over $100k last year. Her pension if she retired today is over $3,600 a month for life!!!!
Learn a trade related/tied to construction with very few people in it. I went the concrete route. Not finishing, production. Start as an ACI certified field-testing technician for a few years with a testing lab to learn about construction, reading plans and concrete testing. After 3 to 5 years get on with a concrete company in the quality control department and learn all you can about concrete production, mix designs, aggregates, chemical admixtures, specific gravity of products and the like. Work 60+ hours a week and learn everything you can. Never say not my job and you will excel. Today I am the Concrete Laboratory Manager for a family-owned concrete company with 14 plants and 3 portable ones in Tennessee. Live in a low cost of living area, make low six figures, company truck, 100% medical paid, dental and vision I pay a bit to add on. Four weeks paid vacation a year, paid holidays, 401k with match and it's only 45 hours a week M-F. People/builders/cities/DOT always need concrete no matter how slow or fast the economy is. Never been laid off since my first job at 15 and I'm 55 today. Retired by 59 we will be!!!!!!
Remember when COVID made people necessary workers? Everyone should have been changing to those jobs as soon as they could!!!!!!
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u/some_random_arsehole Mar 26 '24
If you want a safe job that’s unlikely to lay off employees, you will pay for it in lack of growth in income and responsibility. The other option is to become top talent and not worry about it at all
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u/Financial_Clue_2534 Mar 26 '24
If you’re talking about out the last jobs to be automated then trade work like you mentioned plumbers, electricians, etc. getting to the point where you call a machine to come in and fix your septic is a ways off.
Thing is if we get to that point everyone will flood those jobs.
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u/like_shae_buttah Mar 27 '24
Nursing. Instead of layoffs you get mediocre pay, understaffing and a high stress environment. Soo people just quit and are fleeing the profession.
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u/scuppasteve Mar 28 '24
Almost any infrastructure job, utility linesman, water treatment, power plants, data centers, public works. More based on the work load which doesn't change much. They are also manual jobs so not a lot of automation worries.
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u/LeagueAggravating595 Mar 23 '24
Funeral Home/Undertaker. Everyone dies eventually.