January 18th, 2011
As we roll into a new year, those who are unemployed or desperately holding onto their jobs pile up the expectations for a recovering economy. But even as economists insist that the actual recession is over, jobs are still being cut across several industries. Here are 10 careers that totally tanked in 2010, and that may or may not see a comeback in 2011.
- Interior design: Interior design is one of the major casualties of the latest recession, not just because of the jobs lost during 2010, but the number of jobs that will never return. Cuts to the real-estate industry hit the interior design field very hard, in commercial, private and public sectors, and it could take a very long time for full-time work to return.
- Finance: Banks and other financial firms bore the brunt of the public anger, government regulation and job cuts that the recession brought, not just in 2010 but in the years before, too. Wells Fargo cut 3,800 jobs in 2010, State Street plans to cut 1,400 jobs by 2011, Bank of America planned for well over 30,000 job cuts, AIG fired 20,000 employees, and Citigroup laid off over 57,000 workers, an 18% drop in employment in just one year for the company.
- Construction workers: As planned projects stalled and new projects couldn't raise any money, construction workers had nothing to build. Like interior design workers, the real-estate bust nearly destroyed construction, as an after-effect.
- Pharmaceutical sales jobs: AOL Jobs reported that 45,000 pharmaceutical sales workers lost their jobs in 2010, a hugely negative impact on the economy, partly because the industry was seen as an accessible upward-bound vehicle into the middle and upper classes for workers. The field is supposedly becoming more research-intensive again instead of pushing marketing strategies, and medical doctors are choosing to eliminate the middle man and learn about new drugs and products themselves.
- Newspaper publishing: The media industry has been slammed twice over the last few years, because of the rotten economy and the evolving connection between the public audience and information. As newspapers and magazines move online, publishers are stuck trying to make money and recruit advertisers with the same aggressiveness they were able to do with print. Newspaper publishers and workers in the industry are project to lose nearly a quarter of all jobs through 2018, and many have already been laid off.
- Mining support: Mining support workers are slated to lose over 23% of the industry's 328,000 jobs through 2018, including it in the BLS's list of the ten industries with the largest employment losses. Possible explanations range from the economy to Obama's "war on coal" to the major cost of upkeep to new technologies that streamline processes.
- Traditional marketing jobs: As social media marketing lends itself to DIY strategies and the recruitment of smaller, more niche marketing agencies, firms that relied on more conventional tactics are tanking. Spending money for TV and newspaper ads is less attractive to companies wanting to seem innovative and modern, and paychecks to in-house social media experts are more economical, too.
- Government agencies: As the government pulls back on financing everything from education programs to employee paychecks, lots of government workers are losing jobs. Most cuts occurred at the state and local level, but President Obama has hinted at a federal announcement to come in 2011.
- Automakers: General Motors alone lost 26,000 jobs in 2010, a drop of 11% due to a reorganization plan after bankruptcy. About 22,000 more jobs will be cut by 2012. Chrysler and Ford are so far optimistic about keeping jobs, but nothing is certain.
- Nonprofit agencies: Nonprofit firms are also tanking. Bloomberg.com reported that nonprofit agencies and government agencies collectively suffered the highest number of job cuts in November 2010, losing over 10,700 jobs in that month alone.
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