Job security

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

In blogs and on forums, I have seen people mention that they or their partner have good job security. I'm wondering what jobs are secure and why? I know we tend to think of public sector jobs, for example, as secure, but I could see a many of those cut back to fewer hours a or just dropped for a while. My mind skates out on the margins of worst case scenario, but I have a hard time seeing many jobs as secure. What do you think?

[GREENBACK]

I feel that I'm pretty secure( law enforcement) but I always believe in preparing for the worst case scenario and plan accordingly, even if I feel secure.

[falcon2006]

I got laid off twice in the past three years, once from private sector and once from public sector. No job is secure!

[mommyof4]

I'm a Speech-Language Pathologist, and currently, I work in the public school system. There is a very high demand for SLPs in both the educational and medical settings, so I have a very secure profession. I get phone calls from agencies trying to hire me every few weeks. (No, I'm not that great- they're just desperate)! Even if I did loose my school job, I don't think I would have any difficulty finding another job within a week or so.

My husband is a self-employed criminal defense lawyer, and believe me, there is not a shortage of criminals out there, so I think his job is safe, too.

I don't worry about loosing a job, but I do worry about what would happen if either of us were unable to work any longer, due to some sort of accident or disabilty. Right now, I don't have disabilty insurance on either of us, and I don't think I have enough life insurance on either of us either. This is something I want to remedy very quickly.

[momof1in150]

My DH is a professor for the Navy. The Naval War College has never laid off a professor. He is on a contract but it is an automatic renewal and the only people that haven't had contracts renewed are those that wanted to leave. There is a federal law that keeps the War College open and it stayed open during the Depression so we are pretty secure. He also receives a military retirement so that adds to the security.

[disneysteve]

I'm a family practice physician working in a privately-owned 2-man practice. While medicine is not nearly as good a career as it once was, people will never stop needing doctors.

[MonkeyMama]

Prepare for the worst; Hope for the best. That's my motto.

As an experienced CPA I am in a field where 75% of CPAs are retiring in 10 years and I have never worked a job where we could find ONE CPA with mid-range experience. Not one. I was offered a bonus of 50% of my salary if I could recruit someone who would stick around one year, with any experience really (at my last job). Would be nice if it wasn't an impossible feat. (I work for a CPA firm; not where the money is in accounting, which is the problem).

My job itself is not the most secure because I work for a sole proprietor near retirement and because we are very focused heavily on one industry (healthcare; a troubled industry). But the recruiters are ringing my phone off the hook. So I don't exactly lose sleep over it. My experience translates into other industries easily enough.

Things change, but it's how it's been since 1999 or so. The Enron debacle gave us more job security. The profession as a whole just does twice as much work now. We still don't have the people. Starting pay has doubled since I graduated 1999, in an effort to attract talent. IT could be working. My boss just hired a college grad. We haven't had one of those come through in about 5 years (just no interest). IT will be a while until they catch up to my experience level though, so for today I don't have a lot of competition in my field. If these newbies stick it out I may have some competition, but then there is this whole "75% of profession retiring" thing.

The idea of a pay cut doesn't really bother me. Sure beats not having a job at all. Just my perspective. (& a perspective having a job that pays almost 3 times where I started in 1999).

I just have to add that it is so bad that an economic slowdown could do my profession some good. I hate to say it, but the workload can be pretty insane. So the pendulum swinging the other way a bit would not be a bad thing. OF course, I Don't count on this kind of job security indefinitely. The economy as is could swing things pretty far in the other direction.

[TBH]

I have a union job, so that gives me an added sense of security. However, they did come close to laying some people off in my department last month. They postponed it, but the word is there are going to be layoffs in about six months. Because we have a union contract, they have to lay off people with less seniority first. There are 4 people below me in my department, one equal with me, and 3 above me. I would be okay in the first round of layoffs but if there were further cuts after that I could get axed. Even so, it would mean there would be no work hours for some time but I'd stay on the seniority list for a while, so there would be a chance I'd get hours again when the economy improved.

But that's only 1 of 3 income streams in our house. My second job is freelance, so there is zero job security.

My spouse has been with his employer for 8 years and his position got eliminated once, but they were able to find another position for him so he didn't actually lose his job. Now he's been there longer than anyone else in his department. In a worst-case scenario they'd lay off all his staff and he'd be the only one standing, doing the work of several people. They probably wouldn't get rid of him unless they totally eliminated the department, which seems pretty unlikely.

[creditcardfree]

My DH is an officer in the US Army. He recently signed a contract that puts him on indefinite orders. Technically, he is employed until he chooses to leave or retirement. So, yes some jobs are pretty secure.

[disneysteve]

I wanted to expand on what I posted earlier. I don't necessarily feel that my current position is totally secure but rather that my ability to remain employed is secure. If I were to lose my job, I'm confident that I'd be able to find another in a short period of time. When I left my last job, I made pretty much zero effort to find another. After about 2 months, I got a call about the job that I have now. It was totally unsolicited. My current partner had heard about me through word of mouth and tracked me down to offer me the job.

If I were to lose my job tomorrow, I'd call every doc I know in the area and let them know I was looking for a new position. Somewhere in that vast network of contacts, there would be a job for me. If nothing else, I could just call the temp services and probably be back to work within a week or two if I wanted to be.

[Goldy1]

two words: yes, two word=MEDICAL FIELD.
I tend to think of jobs where human interaction is necessary.
My husband is in the line of engineering, computer aided design and at 37 just got laid off. He worked full time since about 21 in this field and the pay was decent. His lay off was due to the auto industry. If he gets another job in his field, I don't expect another run of full time security that long, but I actually do see some postings for his work.
He is going back to school to learn more programs. I never realized how many programs there were and how each job openeing is specific to the program. I guess you have to keep yourself updated.

I am a teacher by education, but no jobs in MI. I could move for a job, but house is almost paid off. I have experience as an opthalmic technician. It has securty b/c of all the eldery on Medicare needing eye care. Pay is kinda crummy. I am going back to school in a couple months b/c I got free training offered to me by a Michigan lower wage worker grant. My top choice now is dental b/c I can just easily get into the program and I like hands on work.

I like to work with people even though I have had my share of cruddy attitude patients. What good is a secure job if you dislike it? lol

[frito833]

If you are an invaluable asset to the company you get job security. If you make your company lots of money and continue to do so, you will have job security. When companies are hard pressed for money, they trim the fat. When money comes back in, they hire more talented employees. You just have to think like the business owner; Who can I afford to layoff and still keep the business running?

[disneysteve]

If you are an invaluable asset to the company you get job security. If you make your company lots of money and continue to do so, you will have job security.

Of course, that's only true if the company itself is secure. I'm sure there were folks working for Lehman who were great assets. I'm sure Circuit City had some top-notch managers. Bennigan's probably had some terrific servers and bartenders. That didn't make their jobs secure.

[TBH]

From the New York Times:

Bad Times Spur a Flight to Jobs Viewed as Safe

[frito833]

Point taken. However, talented people are able to find jobs faster.