Being fired sucks. But the chances of this happening to you may increase depending on the industry you work in. And despite the looming threat of a recession, not all sectors are affected to the same degree during an economic downturn.
While the tech industry has grabbed headlines with recently announced layoffs at several large companies, widespread layoffs have remained relatively rare over the past six months.
But other industries have seen layoffs, nearly triple the rate compared to others. The arts, entertainment and recreation sector, in particular, saw an average layoff rate of 3.1% from June to November, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This represents an average of approximately 72,000 employees laid off per month.
Other top sectors for layoffs included construction, professional and business services – which includes jobs in accounting, engineering and IT services – and the information industry. This sector covers those working in publishing, media and telecommunications, and IT.
Layoffs in the tech sector have been highly publicized, but jobs are spread across professional and business services as well as information sectors. And while those industries have seen an increase in layoff rates recorded by the BLS, the spike has yet to be severe. “Some of this small uptick could be because other non-tech companies are included in this sector and are doing better on the layoff front,” said Nick Bunker, director of economic research for North America. at the Indeed Hiring Lab. Fortune.
Many tech companies also typically offer several weeks of lead time and severance packages of up to six months. This means that leave data may be delayed until those employees leave the payroll. So while we are aware of the layoffs, they may not yet show up in the data.
However, the number of layoffs is relatively low. “While layoff rates in many of these industries are high relative to other industries during this period, many of those rates are actually low relative to pre-pandemic years,” Bunker says, citing the construction industry as an example. Over the past six months, the average layoff rate in the construction industry was 1.8%, more than double the overall rate for the economy as a whole. But this is less than the average layoff rate in 2019: 2.9%.
Yet workers should always consider the level of job stability associated with each industry when first entering the workforce or considering a career change, says Derek Gallimore, CEO and Founder of Outsource Accelerator. .
“Although the difference between the percentages may seem small at first glance, we found that people working in the arts, entertainment and recreation industry are actually 13 times more likely to be laid off than those working for the federal government,” adds Gallimore.
So which industries tend to be more stable, even during recessions or economic slowdowns? LinkedIn has found that industries like utilities, education, consumer services, and even government jobs tend to be quite stable.
The data confirms this. Even with market volatility, high inflation, and economic hardship in the second half of 2022, government employees saw the lowest rate of layoffs and layoffs.
Health care could also be a more stable sector this year, Bunker says. “Health care has been a resilient sector in part due to strong long-term demand for health services and already tight staff on the ground,” he says.
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