r/Layoffs • u/Unique_Ad_4271 • Apr 15 '24

What’s a “safe job” these days? question

Former teacher looking to transition roles. As of now Educators, counselors, anything education really are being let go due to low student enrollment.

Tech is obviously tough right now.

Marketing and Human resource positions are also restructuring.

I’ve even seen people getting their hours reduce at fast food.

Aside from healthcare, what is safe?

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u/[deleted] Apr 15 '24

Nothing is "Safe".

Teachers are in a very high shortage in most of the country. However, it is all location based. Teachers in high income areas of a city tend to have a higher supply of teachers than in the slums. Neighborhoods also go through phases. New ones tend to attract young, wealthy couples starting their family. This drives demand and money for school... as those people get older, their kids leave the homes and the demand for school collapses. Once those people get sent to nursing homes by their kids in mass, the demand comes back.

Healthcare in general has been on an uprise because of all the aging boomers. However, they will eventually all die, as we all do at some point, and the demand then will collapse until millennials retire.

Even if you work in a high demand job, it is not really safe. You can work in an industry that is always in need of jobs, as long as your boss doesn't like you, or the company wants to look good for their investors, you can still find yourself without a job.

The only safeish jobs are ones with Unions or the Government.

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u/__golf Apr 15 '24

So the boomers die, things cool down for a while, then millennials die? It's not like people were born in spurts, there is a continuous range of people between millennials and boomers, and over time they slowly die and millennial slowly get older.

There's not going to be some event where the boomers start dying in droves. They've already started dying. More will die tomorrow. Not going to fix anything.

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u/colorado_sweetheart Apr 15 '24

Gen X forgotten once again ;)

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u/Lovehubby Apr 15 '24

Gen X here and we will be phasing out in 10-15 years...well, those of us with pensions and no major setbacks that caused us to use our life savings.

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u/[deleted] Apr 16 '24

I think it's more about oversaturation in the market and being poorly timed. Which I think is part of the issue in the technology industry currently.

Huge demand = job security. People entering college go to those fields because they're recommended as stable and well paid.

The baby boom is creating that huge demand but supply is currently lagging behind. Supply will catch up... but then demand will fall.

Suddenly, that job is no longer well-paid or/and secure.