Reports indicate that one in seven (70%) U.S. employees are making preparations over concerns of losing their jobs, and 40% admit they would run out of money after a month of unemployment. JobLeads sought to discover the industries most at risk of suffering following a recession. The company analyzed the job growth rate across various industries following key financial events to identify high-risk job loss careers in which you are most vulnerable to lose your job.

Industries With High Risk Job Loss

Employees in the construction industry are most at highest risk of losing their job, followed by the real estate sector. And the manufacturing industry comes in third.

1. Construction (7.99/10)
2. Real estate (7.81/10)
3. Manufacturing (7.68/10)
4. Transportation/warehousing (7.56/10)
5. Information (7.43/10)
6. Finance and insurance (7.24/10)
7. Total private (7.17/10)
8. Mining/quarrying (7.17/10)
9. Wholesale trade (7.17/10)
10. Professional/scientific/technical services (7.04/10)

JobLeads used data from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to find the industries and states that would fare best in a recession based on past data on job growth. The values for each year from 2005-2023 were averaged and then grouped by industry and state.

Data on how well each industry/state recovered from the Covid 19 pandemic and the 2008 Financial Crisis was found by averaging job growth in the years immediately prior, during and after the event. This was combined with a linear regression on the job growth values from 2005-2023 to find a gradient of the line of best fit (the overall trend. An average percent rank was calculated to find a score representing how vulnerable each industry/state is likely to be in another recession.

According to the analysis, the construction industry is the most likely to be affected by a financial event, with a vulnerability score of 7.99 out of 10. This sector experienced a near 14% decrease in job growth between the pre-financial crash period (2005-2006) and the crash (2007-2009), the largest decline across all industries. Although the construction industry has seen a 9.18% increase in job growth after the crash, it remains below pre-financial crash levels.

The data show that the real estate sector employees are the second most vulnerable to losing their jobs with a score of 7.81 out of 10. This sector saw a 4.51% decline in job growth from pre-Covid levels to during the Covid-19 pandemic (2020-2021), as well as a 5.02% drop during the 2008 financial crash (2007-2009).

Ranking third is the manufacturing industry, with a vulnerability score of 7.68 out of 10. Suffering from a 3.39% decrease in job growth during Covid-19 and a 6.27% decline from the pre-financial crash to the post-crash period, indicating employees in manufacturing risk of job loss.

Industries With Low Risk Job Loss

Utility sector employees are safest in their jobs, according to the JobLeads analysis, with the lowest vulnerability score of 6.09 out of 10. It saw a 1.04% decrease in job growth during Covid compared to pre-Covid levels, and a 2.89% decrease following the financial crash compared to during the crash. This makes employees in the utilities industry likely to be the least affected by job loss.

1. Utilities (6.09/10)
2. Agricultural/forestry/fishing/hunting (6.32/10)
3. Management of companies/enterprises (6.47/10)
4. Retail trade (6.62/10)
5. Educational services (6.69/10)

Tips For Navigating Interviews After Job Loss

A study published in the Journal of Employment Counseling examines the importance of self-regulation for enabling people to effectively search for a new job and to maintain their psychological well-being. Self-regulation allows unemployed workers to manage their emotions and behaviors in a way that produces positive results and to consider adversity as a positive challenge rather than a hindrance.

Jan Hendrik von Ahlen, co-founder and managing director at JobLeads, underscores how losing your job can be a traumatic experience, and applying for new positions—especially explaining a period of unemployment—can be daunting. With this in mind, von Ahlen offers career tips on how to self-regulate in a way that produces positive results in your next interview:

1. Share how you learned from the experience. Von Ahlen suggests that you might not realize it at the time, but losing your job can be an opportunity to show what you are truly capable of when life gets tough. “Potential employers would rather hear how an awful situation was turned around into a learning opportunity than listen to you recall the months spent on the sofa and cursing your former employer,” von Ahlen explains. “Focusing on what you have learnt, and how to apply this to your next employer demonstrates resilience, adaptability and readiness for new challenges. It also signals that you are ready for new opportunities with a fresh, positive and inquiring mindset.”
2. Be clear with what you want in a new role.“Being laid off can actually lead you to rethink your career path and direction with what you truly want to gain from a job,” von Ahlen points out. “This isn’t a bad thing, it can help you explain to employers what inspired you to apply to that particular role.” He notes that having the right experience and qualifications is key to securing a job. Plus, holding a positive attitude and fitting into the culture are huge parts of any hiring decision. “Being able to articulate what you are looking for and why this particular organization is attractive, will make you stand out from other candidates on the interview shortlist,” he adds.
3. Be honest about the layoff. According to von Ahlen, “Honesty is the best policy, that goes without saying in any job role.” When you share the reasons behind a layoff to potential employers, she suggests that you approach it neutrally and constructively. “Acting anxious, embarrassed or angry about the matter can make the recruiter become suspicious and think it might not be so much a layoff as a you off,” he cautions. Whereas, using a straightforward approach indicates transparency and no hard feelings while demonstrating your understanding of the wider business context.”

Self-regulation and a positive perspective reduce stress and cultivate peace of mind. That allows job seekers to manage what they can, let the rest go, and eliminate stressors that interfere with re-employment.

If you lose your job after working in a high-risk job loss career, research shows that your next best course of action is to maintain high levels of self-regulation. This attitude predicts better well-being, job search clarity and job search self-efficacy—the belief that you can successfully perform specific job search behaviors and obtain employment.