Forbes has a list of the (supposedly) most recession-proof jobs, and oddly “funeral home director” isn’t among them. How strange… The list is very heavy with accounting work and jobs that require computer skills with a little nursing and sales thrown in for variety. Seemingly missing from the list is the guy who “deals with the goddamn customers so the engineers don’t have to.” Oh well.
Forbes’ Top 10 Recession-Proof Jobs:
1. Sales Representative
2. Software Design and Development
3. Nursing
4. Accounting Executive
5. Accounting Staff
6. Networking and Systems Administration
7. Administrative Assistant
8. Business Analysis, Software Implementation
9. Business Analysis, Research
10. Finance Staff
Recession-Proof Jobs [Forbes]
(Photo: moxythecat )
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Gravedigger!
Admin Assist right here. Companies will always need someone to answer phones and do boring paperwork so executives don’t have to do sully their lily-white hands with it.
I too was wondering about “sales rep.” If nobody’s buying anything due to a “recession,” who exactly are the reps selling to?
I’ve always thought that jobs in the healthcare and grocery industries are rather recession-proof. You gotta eat and take care of yourself.
don’t forget: COLLECTIONS CSR
just great, with two years to go in architecture school the country is going to enter a recession. Fabulous! If someone isn’t safe is for sure an architect. One project may take moths or even years, so if no one has the money to build it can be a very long time before we get back into business. People already don’t like us because of our “astronomical” fees. On the other hand, I guess this is a problem that affects every sector. No one is completely safe, but I’ll put my money on the nurse, mail man, trash collector and pretty much any public service personnel. Otherwise bye bye society!?
What about being police? We’re hiring and can’t fill our vacancies fast enough. What’s better than a 20 year career with full benefits and a great retirement plan? The current recession isn’t hurting being police at all.
and the military.
They always need fresh ones for far away tours.
What about Economist, I would think that they would not only be recession proof but go up in demand in times of hardship as as people look for a way out. But I don’t know, I just graduated with a degree in Econ and got a job doing number 9 instead.
@Hijakk: Until next year when the gov’t follows bill gates advice and tries to open up about 100k H1B Visas. Then you have to compete with people willing to work for about 15 to 25% less than you.
I am shocked Crack Whore, or Crack Whore Assistant were not listed.
Wooo-Hoo! Number 6. System Administrators FTW!
Added Bonus: Friday is SysAdmin Day! [www.sysadminday.com]
Everything’s coming up Milhouse!
@javi0084:
That’s kind of the inverse.
Seemingly missing from the list is the guy who “deals with the goddamn customers so the engineers don’t have to.” Oh well.
So I’m assuming it wouldn’t be wise, in the middle of an interview, to tell them rather firmly that you have people skills, dammit! WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!
I’d add people involved in food and product safety to that list, given that companies involved in food safety scares really get screwed over when they happen. Postions like quality control, microbiologists, etc.
@JiminyChristmas:
I have worked in the educational field for 5 years.
2 as a technology assistant
2 as an instructional assistant
2 as an after school computer graphics/photography teacher(same years as the IA job)
The only thing I have witnessed is cutbacks in funding for either new teachers, new aids and materials. It was only last year where I heard about de-staffing. The principal send out an internal email saying the budget has been cut and that she and her staff will be carefully considering the qualifications of her staff to determine who she can keep. In the end 1 kinder garden IA was destaffed because Kindergarden enrollment for the following year was going to be down.
Education is a MUST. My county hires new teachers like crazy every year (mostly bad ones). Anyways I still don’t see how Education cannot be considered recession proof. The only way you can loose your job is if you F’up big time and either get terminated or not get a contract renewal. They can’t say, well we need to save some money so we have to fire a few hundred teachers. Instead they just simply cut back on a few things like materials and other things need to make a school 100 percent functional without compromising education and safety.
@Hijakk: Maybe so, but some companies are contracting out the whole shebang. Why would you need an onsite sysadmin to run an email server when you can contract with someone else to give you email service “in the cloud”?
woooo for computer techies!
I’m surprised only one person, in passing, has mentioned this:
A most recession-proof business is an auto repair shop, and an auto mechanic should be in a recession-proof job. As people put off buying new cars, keeping old ones going becomes a priority.
@SkokieGuy: Nursing jobs are not exactly “recession proof and outsourcing proof,” as you might think. The LARGE hospital corporation (starts with “H” and ends with “A”) that owns the hospital where I work has resorted to bringing in nurses from India to take nursing positions at lower wages. So, in a manner of speaking, even those jobs have been out-sourced. These nurses, while hard working and willing to work virtually any shift for lower wages (since their wage is still many, many times what they could make in India), can barely speak the language. I can’t count the number of patients who have complained about not being able to understand one single word these nurses say to them.
Don’t get me wrong … this is NOT a racist post, nor am I slamming anyone but the corporate decision makers for making poor decisions that directly affect the care provided to those unfortunate enough to suffer from poor health, requiring them to seek assistance from health care professionals. If you or your loved one is in need of such care, shouldn’t/wouldn’t you expect better for them than to be cared for by someone who cannot even communicate with you and that you cannot communicate with?
@Canadian Impostor: You ARE aware Europe is in a recession, right? lol
@jscott73: I agree, it’s a bit naive to say that a software developers job is easily off-shored. If anything you need the expertise in house to develop the specifications for the software being written. Also, with the Internet booming, and advanced computer systems creeping into more areas of commerce and industry, more programmers are required.
Interesting that they don’t mention federal jobs. I don’t remember the last time there was a general layoff of government employees.
Sweet! My job is a mix of 6, 8, and 9!
@ITDEFX: Erm… there’s a teacher surplus here in CA (subprime means kids moving out of the state into new homes). Ah-nold just called for 70,000 teachers to be fired by September. And the newer, less qualified ones will not be the first to go. They are working from the highest paid down, offering early retirements and unpaid “leave of absences” to seasoned instructors. And community colleges have a min. 2 year hiring freeze. So education… not so secure.
CA IS experiencing a severe nursing shortage, tho’. If you are so inclined, get thee to DeVry.
Don’t forget Repo Man.
@Sh3rpa: The recession means that you are less likely to be outsourced because they can pay you less now than they had to before
I guess comment codes don’t apply to posters who take the Lord’s name in vain in a casual news blurb. Thanks. Thanks a lot. Seriously, I don’t care if you ban me, can we not be intelligent without words that are gravely offensive? If it were a word about RACE you would never do it but gee whiz, those prude Christians. I’m outta here.
@BPorche: @ironchef: For real though, almost no one gets fired from the military. Besides the whole get-shot-at-give-your-life-for-your-country bit, it can be a pretty safe bet. I’m not even being a smart ass. In the 80′s when everyone’s dad was getting fired mine was sitting safe an secure at his military telecommunications desk job.
Schweet! Accounting is up there! Maybe when I graduate in a year I’ll find a job quick!
*crosses fingers*
yay, just finished my nursing assitant certification so I should be set till I go to nurcing school
@BlondeGrlz: very good point about the military. I rode out the last recession with no problems for that very same reason – to get “fired” from the military you’d pretty much have to be doing it on purpose.
Fortunately, the military gave me a skill which also can’t be completely offshored: anything having to do with electronics repair. What happens when a 500-foot radio transmitter tower goes on the blink? You’re sure as hell not going to ship it to Bangladesh. In fact, you often don’t have that option with many electronics devices ranging from your living room television to airport radars and municipal public safety radio sites; in almost all cases maintenance and repair of these systems pretty much require local attention.
@BPorche: A a teacher, I have to disagree with your having us on your list. Schools are cutting WAY back on staffing because funds are drying up. I know a teacher that is scheduled for a classroom of 44 kids with no other staff (at least not yet.) Districts are cutting way back and jobs are in short supply.
Also, while nursing isn’t being “outsourced”, they are importing to staff our hospitals. Plenty of nurses from other countries are coming here to work.
@ITDEFX: “Instead they just simply cut back on a few things like materials and other things need to make a school 100 percent functional without compromising education and safety.”
Whaaaaa???? That’s one of the last things they cut back on. Plenty of schools axe teachers. Maybe your district is so bad that they have tons of turn over, but most district, at least in WI, are cutting staffing all over- students be damned! On of the richest districts in WI recently voted down a resolution to fund putting a new roof on the school, and they’re trying to force the high school teachers to teach 6 instead of 5 classes. Do you think that will have a positive affect on students? As a science teacher, I can tell you that we NEED our preps. So now those teachers will not have 50 minutes to ready a lab, or grade papers or whatever. I’d be damned if I’d take MORE work home to finish. I do enough of that already… so that just leaves cutting back on activities and in depth assignments.
I actually think I have a recession-proof job as well. I’m in the manufacturing of oil refinery equipment. They seem to be buying more stuff than we almost can make in a decent turn around time. As long as fuel is needed (gas, diesel, natural gas, propane, or any type of fuel or chemical), we are set where I am currently employed.
Interesting that the list matches the list of soul-killing jobs that pay more than $10/hr.
I’m sticking with Law Enforcement.
You’re always going to need people to enforce laws, even in a Mad Max dystopia.
3 years out of 4 year degree in Computer Networking and Systems Administration done… gravy boat of gonna have some kind of job here I come!
Assuming Forbes gets anything right?
Oh and yes, Computer Administration can destroy your soul, if you let it.
Administration by the way, is not Computer Science. It’s the Science one that tends to get off shored. Administration is the guy who yells at you for looking at porn at work and replaces your broken stuff, you know, on your desk, not in Bangladesh.
@Sh3rpa: Too true. I don’t think that list is actually that accurate. I don’t know how many jobs with livable wages will be left but the jobs that are going to be left are ones that depend on having a person in the U.S. doing it. Ones that cannot be computerized, done over the phone or outsourced to some place that pays even less than American employers do.
@rockasocky:
Points and laughs and the poor, poor, miserable 1L
God, I wish I had listened to all those people who told me I shouldn’t go to Law School. I could be at home smoking dope or something instead of busting my ass in Tax.
Of course, I have two years in now, so it would be a terrible waste of $70K if I quit now. :-/
Software design and development? Yeah, right. Maybe if you live in India…
I’ll have to disagree with this list too. In my experience, the first jobs I’ve seen go at large companies are admin assistants. (Granted, it’s usually not the boss that has the assistant that’s doing the layoffs.)
And Sales? There is so much turnover in sales positions! If you don’t sell enough, you’re booted out and the next guy brought in.
@Sh3rpa: Maybe I’m just lucky but I’ve never seen a situation where sysadmins have been outsourced. Perhaps it’s because I’ve always been a sysadmin at smaller companies and now at a large university. But I know sysadmins at large high-tech companies, etc. and none of them have ever indicated any sysadmin outsourcing.
yeah, i’m gonna go ahead & agree with the folks who say this list is b.s. – at least in my area. cops, teachers & state workers are the only “recession-proof” jobs in connecticut. they are not easy jobs to get (except maybe the teaching positions – they’re all over the place). the state hasn’t been hiring for years in any department, but if you want a cushy job that you can never get fired from – that’s it. i swear, you call any agency phone # & ask a simple question like “where is your main office” & the receptionist has to put you on hold twice & then transfer you to somebody’s voicemail before you’ll get an answer.
plus, 20 years to a full pension, benefits packages that you’d have to be upper-level management to see anywhere else & 14 holidays/year (seriously, they even get stupid holidays like “national lint day” off).
am i bitter much? hell yeah, i just got my tax bill.
I’d say that nursing should be #1, #2 at the least. People are getting older, more people are living longer. If you’re a nurse, you probably get to dictate your salary and your hours.
@jscott73: Seen it, lived it.
@MercuryPDX:
That was just what I was thinking. It’s hard out there for a BA.
It’s funny this post comes up the very week I’m taking a workshop to be a business analyst. I feel SO much more secure!
Also, to tag along with the outsourcing comments – I work for a Government contractor, and many positions need to be filled by red-blooded American citizens for security reasons.
@loogee: you would think, wouldn’t you? couldn’t be further from the truth, though. most of the nurses i know work shitty hours, they work 60+ hours/week, they’re often on-call when they are not working & many have side jobs to compensate for a crappy salary.
some nursing statistics for you here –> [www.allnursingschools.com]
considering the length of schooling & certification needed to become a nurse, an average salary of $52,000 doesn’t seem all that great, does it? & on top of that, the profession is suffering from a “squeeze” – either nurses are opting for the less difficult CNA certification (i think that’s a 2-yr program), or they are supplementing their RN status with additional schooling/certification to become NPs (master degree) &/or receiving advanced certs.
@Jesse in Japan: How could we? Because what’s mine is mine, and what’s yours… is mine too:
@mac-phisto: Schooling for an RN, say, bachelors + 2 year grad program … is not much at all, comparitively. $52,000/year is pretty reasonable.
@MichaelBrazell: bear in mind that’s an average salary (& in the profession, salaries can vary greatly based on a nurse’s certifications). to compare, the average teacher’s salary for roughly the same time period is $47,600. –> [www.aft.org]
in addition, a teacher doesn’t need any additional schooling, annual certification renewals, malpractice insurance, only works 5 days/week, 180 days/year & is never on-call.
still sound reasonable?
Get real, Forbes.
Here’s my list:
1. Hooker
2. Drug dealer
3. Politician (see how I did that? The Holy Trinity)
4. CEO of the following industries: telecommunications, auto-making, pharmaceuticals
5. Motivational speaker
6. Plastic surgeon
7. Farm worker
8. Oil rig worker
9. Corporate shill
10. Mercenary