Coping With Recession
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Video games like those in this image taken on April 17, 2009, in a CeX store in New York did well in early 2009, despite the ongoing recession. See more pictures about the recession.
At the time of this writing, the United States economy is in a deep and prolonged recession. If we've learned anything from past financial slumps, we know that unemployment soars during these periods as businesses close doors or cut costs to ride out the rough times ahead [source: NPR].
During recessions, job security becomes the number one priority as workers flock toward so-called recession-proof businesses. Recession-proof businesses are traditionally defined as industries that either thrive during rotten economic times or at least survive unscathed.
The global financial crisis of 2007-2009, however, rewrote the rules about recessions. Many economists are now saying that there's no longer such a thing as a recession-proof business. The best that employees can hope for is a recession-resistant job [source: Chase].
Every sector of the economy is going to take a hit as consumers slash spending, banks freeze credit and governments scramble to find a solution. The trick is to figure out which industries will weather the storm better than the rest.
The key to job security during a recession, experts say, is to find a career that shows long-term growth potential, is immune from outsourcing and isn't tied to the fickle tastes of consumers [sources: Burt].
Then again, what do the experts know? As you'll see from the first item on our list of 10 recession-proof businesses -- listed in no particular order -- changing consumer tastes can result in "sweet" profits. Read on to find out more.
