This current economy is giving life to a handful of new words tied to the recession according to this abcnews.com story.  Some of the words are making it into the online site of the major dictionaries.  Thankfully they are not putting the words into the printed version…yet.  Does anyone still buy the hard copy?

Here are a few of these new words entering the lexicon:

decremental: adjective The act or process of decreasing or becoming gradually less; the amount lost by gradual diminution or waste.

Great Recession: noun The current recession, which began in December 2007.  The length and severity of the current recession has led some in the media to dub it the “Great Recession,” a term that echoes the Great Depression of the 1930s.

recessionista: noun One who remains stylish during times of economic hardship; a woman who updates her wardrobe in a frugal manner.

staycation: noun A holiday spent at home, especially due to straitened financial circumstances.

zombie bank: noun A bank that has a negative net worth but continues to operate because of depositor’s insurance or other governmental intervention.

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Today’s announcement of 7.2% unemployment is remarkable in a bad context.  Yet, I do appreciate the AP writer’s opening sentence (my color):

The nation’s unemployment rate bolted to 7.2 percent in December, the highest level in 16 years, as nervous employers slashed 524,000 jobs.

Dramatic, wouldn’t you say?  Look, it is bad and most people realize that fact, but this type of fear-mongering is over the top.  How about the third graph:

For all of 2008, the economy lost a net total of 2.6 million jobs. That was the most since 1945, when nearly 2.8 million jobs were lost.

That was the first half; here is the second half (can’t put my crayon down):

Although the number of jobs in the U.S. has more than tripled since then, losses of this magnitude are still being painfully felt.

The total number of jobs as more than tripled which changes the context of the numbers drastically.  An unbiased editor would delete the presentation of the statistics because the context is willfully deceiving.

Nonetheless, the economy will roll on and it will rebound.  It is cyclical which is a point lost on the media.  My approach to these times is to hunt down pockets of opportunity whether you are a jobseeker or a salesperson.

There are industries that are relatively strong in this down economy.  Government is obviously spending money, aerospace, healthcare and others are the “strongest of the weak” right now.

The key for the short-term is to find openings in these industries and ride them out.  The best guess is that the economy will start to come out of its funk in June of this year.  Unfortunately, hiring is a lagging indicator so it will take longer for that area to rebound.  We must press on so don’t let emotionally-written articles get you down.

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BusinessWeek.com offers up a provocative article about the slowing economy – The Upside of Recession.   Interesting opening:

Pop quiz, hot shot: What do MTV, Trader Joe’s, and the iPod have in common? Yes, of course, they’re all now ubiquitous and make our lives much more agreeable.

But to us, the most interesting thing about all three is that these great brands were born during recessions. (Trader Joe’s: 1958; MTV: 1981; iPod: 2001, if you are scoring at home.)

The authors are just warming up:

Cutting (ed.- lay offs) across the board is the coward’s way of dealing with a downturn. It assures that no one is going to yell—how could anyone possibly object to sharing the pain equally—and it gives the timid a built-in excuse to fail. (“Gee, I know no one liked our new product, but they slashed our budget 22.73% right before launch, so, it wasn’t my fault.”)

But suppose you use the recession not as an excuse or a reason for hiding under your desk but rather as a catalyst for innovation? Instead of cutting everything by 22.73%, why not see the downturn as a chance to whack 90% (or the whole darn thing) out of stuff that isn’t working well?

Cutting off funding to your laggards would free up a lot of money to back the one, or possibly two, big ideas you have been working on, ideas that have a chance to become breakthrough brands. If you want to be less aggressive, you could place more resources behind the existing ideas/programs/products that are already working well.

These are my people – “a coward’s way” is about as direct a shot as you can take. They close their article with this graph:

Recessions by definition are temporary. Great companies and great executives don’t abandon their growth strategies in light of temporary setbacks. They attack aggressively, while everyone else is pulling back.

Read the entire thing.

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Yahoo HotJobs has a story out today titled Recession-Proof Jobs in 2008.  First, I love this old media trick:

Economists at Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley say the U.S. is heading for its first-blown recession in 16 years, and a recent CNN poll found that 57 percent of the public believe the U.S. is in a recession already, with the economy topping the list of voter’s worries.

16 years?  How about 8 years ago with the tech bubble?  Are we in a recession if CNN does a poll and people say we are?  Please, I would prefer to read what measurements show that we are in a recession today.

Enough of that.  Clearly the economy is slowing down from it’s torrid pace just as it always has and always will.  It is cyclical.  I am intrigued by the title of the article and when you get past the opening propaganda, you come to some interesting positions (my editing):

However, many employment sectors are expected to remain strong despite a possible recession, and job-seekers may have more success if they focus on recession-proof professions.

* Education. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has historically shown teaching to be relatively recession-proof. But demographics are important: High-growth areas like the Sun Belt offer much better prospects than the Rust Belt.

* Energy. “This is a major issue for the global economy, and jobs related to oil and gas, alternative energy and even nuclear are likely to see strong growth,” Challenger said.

* Health care. Almost half the 30 fastest growing occupations are concentrated in health services — including medical assistants, physical therapists, physician assistants, home health aides, and medical records and health information technicians — according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

* International business. “If you have a strong knowledge of other cultures, and an ability to work in another country, you’ll find plenty of opportunities,” according to John Challenger. “If you’re first generation Chinese, with business skills and Chinese language skills, you’re in good shape.

* Environmental sector. There is a huge and growing industry geared to combat global warming. “Not only will professionals with skills in sustainability issues be in demand through the end of the decade, we are likely to shortages of professionals with ‘green’ skills,” said Rona Fried, president of sustainable business.com, a networking service for sustainable businesses.

* Security. “Crime doesn’t stop during a recession, and police officers, port security specialists and international security experts will continue to be in demand,” Challenger emphasized.

I think that is an accurate list.  The one thing for sure is that talented employees are always in demand no matter what the economy.

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