3 Recession-Proof Industries Struggling Due To COVID-19

Recessions are a painful but unavoidable part of a business cycle, as historical data on the unemployment rate by industry shows so far. Recessions cause the economy to contract, resulting in millions of job losses, especially when the event is on a global scale. However, some industries continue to thrive when a recession is underway, growing, making sales, and adding jobs. The performances may be a little muted, but these industries don’t reverse their growth direction during recessions, except in 2020.

The COVID-19 pandemic induced the recession of 2020 (that many experts claim was coming anyway). These are a few industries that usually don’t have high unemployment rates even during a recession, but they showed job losses in 2020. Recessions make everyone want to join such industries that don’t get badly affected, but the global lockdowns threw up a few surprise losers.

Health Care :The peak unemployment rate in this sector was much lower than the most significant job loser, food, and drinking places and the current unemployment rate in October is 4.1%. Though healthcare is supposed to be a very stable sector, the initial lockdowns had shut down all except the emergency services.

There were about 1.4 million job losses in April, out of which half a million were from dentistry. Auxiliary staff was particularly impacted, and even specializations like dermatology were affected. In contrast 2008, saw healthcare hiring increasing steadily.

Though there were more front-line healthcare workers necessary to deal with the coronavirus cases, many were temporary positions. Jobs are now being added back, but the professionals are operating at a lowered capacity to reduce the spread through aerosols naturally generated during procedures. Costs are also higher than before, due to the personal protective equipment that is now mandatory.

Education : Education was long seen as a very stable if not very well-paying sector. Teaching is a field that is always required, and schools cannot stop, no matter what the economy may up to. Until 2020, when social distancing norms and the initial shutdowns furloughed education professionals in large numbers. Public education job losses were higher in April 2020 than throughout the Great Recession.

With online classes, many jobs are now back, and the current unemployment rate is 4.4%. The pandemic has given a boost to online education, and the nature of teaching may permanently change a little, with the success of assignment submission online procedures. As online platforms streamline their services, many dropouts and those who cannot study full-time may find ways to complete their education.

Air Transportation :The air transportation sector did not have a huge unemployment problem even during the GFC 2008-10 when there was a loss of about 50,000 jobs from 2007-10. During 2020, air transportation had about 150,000 job losses. Employment-wise, 2020 has been catastrophic for aviation. As countries restricted all but emergency air travel and banned international flights in the early days of the pandemic, the industry quickly descended into massive losses.

There is a slight recovery now, but jobs will continue to vanish as the aviation industry is in dire straits. They are asking the government for aid. Passenger traffic is down by over 80%. It is unlikely to recover soon as people have less disposable income and businesses are in a slump, unable to fund work that requires travel.

COVID-19 has placed many industries in a challenging situation, such as the arts, theatres, and museums heavily dependent on public donations. A few like the online media streaming services have transitioned well, while others like tourism, food, and hospitality will need to wait out the pandemic.