Recession proof jobs are becoming a priority as uncertainty looms over the global economy in 2025 and beyond. With conflicts involving major countries in the West and East, combined with the ever-looming threat of unknown viruses sparking another global pandemic, the possibility of an economic recession cannot be ignored. While no one can predict the future with certainty, preparing for such challenges with a recession-proof career is a smart move.
It’s a well-known fact that wars, conflicts, and pandemics always lead to economic recession. Economic recessions lead to the closure of businesses leading to job losses. If the COVID-19 pandemic and its financial aftermath are fresh in your mind, surely you can comprehend what I mean by these words.
In such a situation as I describe above, we can anticipate an economic recession and job losses. However, recession proof jobs can not only save your career but also help circumvent any financial distress that could plague your household due to shortage or lack of money.
Table of Contents
To know why recession proof jobs are important, continue reading. Let’s begin by seeing how the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 impacted employment worldwide.
Job Losses Due to Covid-19 Pandemic
These figures are garnered from various sources. These are estimated figures of job losses worldwide and in the US. The figure could be higher too. However, the figures I will cite now are enough to reveal the extent of economic recession that struck the world during the Covid-19 pandemic and well beyond, to 2021.
Job Losses Worldwide
- Increased Unemployment: The global unemployment rate spiked in 2020, reaching 6.5 percent, a 1.1 percentage point increase from 2019. This translates to an additional 33 million people becoming unemployed worldwide.
- Job Losses: The pandemic resulted in a global employment shortfall of 144 million jobs in 2020 compared to pre-pandemic projections. This includes both outright job losses and people leaving the workforce altogether.
- Working Hour Losses: Measured in working hours, the impact was even more dramatic. In 2020, an estimated 8.8 percent of global working hours were lost, equivalent to roughly 255 million full-time jobs. This is four times greater than the losses experienced during the 2009 financial crisis.
- Unemployed youth and women were disproportionately affected by the pandemic's economic fallout. Regions like Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe and North America, saw unemployment rates rise by at least 2 percentage points.
Job Losses in the USA
The United States experienced a severe spike in unemployment due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Here's a quick rundown:
- Dramatic Increase: The unemployment rate soared to unprecedented levels in 2020. It peaked at 14.8 percent in April 2020, the highest since data collection began in 1948. This signifies a significant portion of the workforce losing their jobs.
- Recovery, but not Full: The unemployment rate has improved since then, but it hasn't fully bounced back to pre-pandemic levels. As of the end of 2021, the unemployment rate was still higher than it was in 2019.
- Government Support: The federal government implemented programs to help ease the burden. These included Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) for gig workers and freelancers, and Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) which provided additional benefits on top of regular unemployment insurance.
As you can see, these numbers are scary enough. While we can appreciate that not everyone lost their jobs during the pandemic and its economic fallout, it’s equally important to note that millions of people had to change the ways they work. The pandemic and the need for social distancing called for people to work online, making a lot of offline jobs redundant.
This means, if you’re going to look for a recession-proof job, common sense suggests that it would have to be online. That could allow you to work from home or even switch locations easily. As a matter of fact, online jobs tend to be more recession-proof than offline ones, though they require a greater degree of skills.
Also Read:
- Recession Proof Business Ideas in USA in 2024
- How to Prepare for a Recession: Top Money Management Tips
Recession Proof Jobs
If you’re serious about finding recession proof jobs or switching careers to such work, read this list. These are some of the best recession free jobs in the US and elsewhere in the world too.
They don’t require any additional skills or education. Almost anyone can take these recession proof jobs easily. However, I recommend that you start practicing these skills and look for such jobs now, before any recession strikes.
Content Writer
Content writers make a lot of money and are in demand all around the year. The last recession actually caused an increase in the demand for content as people forced to live indoors read a lot of blogs and websites. In fact, the demand for content surged by an unprecedented 28 percent during the pandemic, even as more people entered this profitable field.
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Data Analyst
Data analysts are also in demand during recessions. Data analysts work for banks, e-commerce stores, healthcare providers, and almost every other industry that depends on its sales and marketing online. They analyze data and inform stakeholders about various facets such as the cost of converting clients, expenses and impact, and even locations from where people access a website or e-commerce store.
AI and ML Trainers
If you know how to use Artificial Intelligence and can create bots or other stuff with machine learning, you can rest assured of a secure job during any recession. The reason is simple. AI is now used by common people as well and hence, as creators compete with their AI models, there’s a need for more experts and ML specialists in this growing field.
Also Read:
- 10 Best AI Side Hustle Ideas
- Creating and Managing Budgets Using AI: A Guide for Women to Save and Track Expenses
SEO Experts
One more profession that survived job cuts during the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic fallout was SEO experts. These are persons that do search engine optimization for websites to ensure they rank high on Google search results and their content is widely read. These experts are in demand all around the year and work for almost every industry that has an online presence.
Graphic Designers
Recession or not, everyone needs amazing designs and images such as logos. Hence, graphic designers don’t face any shortage of work during a recession. In fact, the last recession saw a large demand for graphic designers because governments and the healthcare industry had to get messages of the pandemic and precautions to the public fast and used graphics and images to warn.
In fact, there are several other professions too which needn’t fear recession. These include healthcare experts such as doctors, nurses, law enforcement personnel, military personnel, and cybersecurity professionals, to name a few.
In Conclusion
Remember, a recession_proof jobs are ones that allows you to work from home or any other location, using online resources. It is also one where your skills remain relevant and useful when governments, businesses, and people have less money to spend. Therefore, consider the five professions that I have listed above. They don’t need special qualifications and you can learn tricks of the trade free through online channels.
Ashwin (Win) Honawar is an accomplished journalist and poignant author with 33 years of experience. He is renowned for his daredevil journalism and engaging narratives that explore various facts of human life and the resilience of the human spirit.
