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Recession-Proof Industries

Looking for a recession-proof job?

Jobs are not recession-proof, industries are. For example, nursing is not recession-proof. A nurse in the Healthcare industry has a recession-proof job because Healthcare is recession-proof, not because nursing is recession-proof. If this same person is a "company nurse" in the Textile industry, that person's job is no longer recession-proof.

The table below shows the employment growth rates for 1,000 industries from 1990 to 2008, the worst 12 month periods of the recessions that ended in 1991 and 2002, the 12 months ending October 2008, and the projections to 2016. Green denotes growing faster than the long-term average growth rate, grey denotes growing slowly and red denotes declining. All data comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

To see the official BLS description of an industry, click here.

Srt Industry 90-08 90-91 01-02 07-08 2016
1 Total Nonfarm 25.4% -1.5% -1.4% -0.2% 11.0%
2 Natural resources and mining 3.2% -3.5% -1.2% 8.5%  
3 Logging -32.4% -9.1% -7.2% -3.2% -19.9%
4 Mining 7.8% -2.7% -0.2% 9.5% -1.6%
5 Oil and gas extraction -13.3% 0.7% 0.7% 12.0% -1.7%
6 Mining, except oil and gas -21.3% -6.6% -0.4% 3.7% 4.3%
7 Coal mining -38.8% -9.6% 8.5% 7.8% 0.3%
8 Bituminous coal and lignite surface mining -25.8% -8.1% 10.0% 10.3%  
9 Bituminous coal underground mining and anthracite mining -47.8% -10.6% 7.4% 5.5%  
10 Metal ore mining -20.7% -4.2% -16.8% 11.3% 8.9%
11 Nonmetallic mineral mining and quarrying -1.0% -4.2% -1.0% -1.4% 5.9%
12 Stone mining and quarrying 14.2% -5.5% 0.7% -5.3%  
13 Crushed and broken limestone mining 5.6% -5.6% -3.1% -4.7%  
14 Other stone mining and quarrying 25.7% -5.4% 5.6% -5.9%  
15 Sand, gravel, clay, and refractory mining 1.1% -3.8% -0.5% 1.3%  
16 Construction sand and gravel mining 14.8% -3.5% 4.2% 4.9%  
17 Other nonmetallic mineral mining -36.8% -2.2% -6.8% 5.1%  
18 Support activities for mining 75.8% 0.1% -0.6% 12.8% -6.6%
19 Support activities for oil and gas operations 85.8% 0.6% 7.8% 14.6%  
20 Construction 33.8% -9.7% -0.5% -5.6% 10.2%
21 Construction of buildings 13.0% -12.3% -0.6% -7.3%  
22 Residential building 23.2% -14.5% 0.5% -11.4%  
23 New single-family general contractors 13.3% -14.2% 0.4% -15.0%  
24 New multifamily general contractors 22.6% -13.8% 2.6% -3.6%  
25 Residential remodelers 44.4% -14.4% -0.3% -4.6%  
26 Nonresidential building 3.8% -10.2% -1.7% -2.5%  
27 Industrial building -23.8% -7.3% -3.6% -8.4%  
28 Commercial building 13.9% -11.3% -1.1% -0.9%  
29 Heavy and civil engineering construction 13.9% -6.8% 1.4% -4.4%  
30 Utility system construction 33.1% -7.0% 0.1% -5.1%  
31 Water and sewer system construction 36.6% -6.7% 1.8% -6.6%  
32 Oil and gas pipeline construction 9.6% -2.8% 13.1% -0.5%  
33 Power and communication system construction 51.7% -11.5% -8.1% -6.1%  
34 Land subdivision -13.4% -10.2% -2.5% -2.8%  
35 Highway, street, and bridge construction 9.0% -7.1% 3.6% -3.0%  
36 Other heavy construction 0.6% -1.7% 3.5% -7.4%  
37 Specialty trade contractors 48.8% -9.2% -0.8% -5.3%  
38 Residential specialty trade contractors na na 2.7% -10.3%  
39 Nonresidential specialty trade contractors na na -3.3% -0.8%