Tech Lay-Offs: Are you working in one of THESE 'recession-proof' industries? Experts advise how workers can prepare for job loss, slowdown in employment market

In the past few weeks, several multinational tech companies like Amazon, Twitter, and Meta have been in the news for laying off their employees.   

Companies like Amazon, Meta, Intel, Cisco, and Twitter have announced job cuts that have resulted in thousands of employees losing their jobs. The tension in the IT industry was palpable as reports of Google starting job cuts came on Tuesday.    

Amazon has laid off as many as 1,36,989 employees. Twitter has laid off nearly 50 per cent of its workforce after Elon Musk took over the microblogging site. Earlier this month, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also announced that 11,000 workers are likely to lose their jobs.   

Even before the global economic condition could recover from the impact of Covid, severe inflation hit the economy due to the Russia-Ukraine war. The growing inflation coupled with several other global economic factors like the soaring rise of USD value against other currencies and repeated Fed rate hikes have created tension in the job market as well.  

As evident from the trends of the global economic crisis of 2008 and the Covid crisis, the IT industry has always been one of the worst hits during such tough times.  

Even many companies have announced a hiring freeze for the next few months. With economic conditions taking a toll on the job market, people are often looking for jobs that will be least affected due to recession and other economic crises.    

What are recession-free jobs? 

There are certain industries that aren’t severely impacted during high inflation and thus can be considered recession-proof jobs, reveals a recent study by Forbes. Some of the professions like medical practitioners, mental health counsellors, police and patrol officers, court, municipal and license clerks, and child-care workers are likely to get least impacted by the recession, stated the Forbes report.  

“Though it’s misleading to say ‘recession-free’ jobs. There are no promising jobs in this period, but healthcare professionals, social workers, actuaries, lawyers, and judicial workers are slightly safe from the recession,” said Yogita Tulsiani, Director and co-founder of iXceed Solutions, a human resource tech start-up. 

Several experts from human resource agencies assured that the jobs of data analysts, applications architects, and data scientists are too in the same category because they are connected to basic human needs. Thus, the professionals from these domains are somewhat immune to the recession.   

Some of the other industries and domains which are likely to remain least affected by the recession include the entertainment industry, education beat, and jobs related to software coding. Those associated with coding are still in a safe haven in the software industry, assured experts.  

How candidates can prepare to get into such industries? 

Competition is as fierce in these supposed recession-proof industries, as it is in any other field, stated experts. And as more and more employees enter the market for recession-free jobs, the competition will get tougher. 

“The only factor that is different in these industries is that your job stability is not very closely dependent on the global market,” stated Sudhakar Raja, Founder & CEO, of TRST Score - HR Tech startup.

Another mistake that candidates often make is to randomly take the decision to switch their jobs to one of these domains when there is a growing concern of job loss in their existing job.  

“Though it's not the right time to switch jobs because of the frequent layoffs, instead of switching, people have to prepare themselves for this wave by managing and controlling the expenses,” added  Sarbojit Mallick, Co-Founder of Instahyre, an online job portal 

According to several experts from HR agencies, the good part is that even companies from such recession-proof fields go for campus placements these days, making it easier for candidates to get into these industries. But at a time when there is growing uncertainty among employees and new graduates in terms of job stability, the companies also need to reframe their employment policies, suggested experts.   

“Both small firms and large enterprises will need to adjust their human resources policies in light of the impending economic slowdown, which is likely to turn into a recession,” mentioned Mallick of Instahyre.  

Moreover, industry leaders and veterans also suggest at a time of economic slowdown and the growing risk of unemployment, candidates need to look out for ways to upskill themselves and may even choose to opt for higher education that will add to their portfolios.