Forget About Big Salaries, U.S. Workers Seeking 'Safe' Jobs Now.

As the economy appears to be sinking into a deep recession, American workers who have been laid off are faced with a choice. Do you continue in the same field you were fired from, or do you take a pay cut and shoot for security?

American workers see the future before them, and it's looking more and more like a deep recession. The answer, according to many is to focus on getting a job that will last, until at least the economy improves. The New York Times reports that investment bankers at Merrill Lynch or a Morgan Stanley are now joining small Wall Street companies and getting paid less. What they are getting is something money can't buy: an employment guarantee. College professors are going for jobs in community colleges, where enrollment is rising. And workers in Eastern Wisconsin, who'd been furloughed from a paper mill are retraining to be truck drivers and welders. Dan Geneen, who has picked up a truck-driving certificate and is learning welding since he was let go by the paper mill last fall is pleased with his decision to switch.

“Looking online and in newspapers and talking to my instructors, I’ve decided that trucking and welding stand out as jobs that are available and will continue to be available, and a lot of my friends agree.”

The idea of being a truck driver or a welder may not appeal to most of us, but it's part of an increasing trend for people to go after jobs now that are likely to last, and pay a reasonable salary. Our new president, Barack Obama is promising to generate thousands of steady jobs, some of them within the government. But until these jobs materialize and are abundantly available, the hunt for steady jobs continues. Susan Houseman, a senior economist and labor expert at the Upjohn Institute, a research group in Michigan says,

“The companies doing the least hiring right now are very often the companies that offer the safest jobs.”

Wall Street has really been feeling the pinch. The people who leave the big, but shaky investment firms before they collapse to move into smaller boutique firms are in luck, especially if they get out before the ax falls. Most of the analysts making the switch get less initial compensation in exchange for more security. But employment executives say in these hard times, the security may not be that great. Cheryl Solit is a partner at Solit Tessler & Company, a placement firm in Short Hills, N.J.

“The no-layoff clauses in the contracts they sign are usually for one or two years and usually in the form of guaranteed compensation. The new employer is not likely to lay you off when he has to pay you anyway.”

College Professors who have been laid off by some of the most prestigious universities are turning towards community colleges for jobs. Enrollment at these schools is being fueled by laid-off workers eager to retrain themselves for other occupations, along with young people enrolling in greater numbers to avoid the high tuition at four-year colleges. James Jacobs, president of Macomb Community College in Warren, Michigan says his school's enrollment is up 10 percent from last year. He says although most of the new teachers hired wind up as adjuncts, the courses they teach at his school and at others can add up to full-time work. Still Jacobs points out that the yearly pay comes out to about $40,000 or less with no benefits...

“If you spent six or seven years and hundreds of thousands of dollars getting a graduate degree and you end up doing this, that is not a happy thought. But it is steady work.”

As the recession deepens, there is one private industry sector that continues to add jobs in noticeable numbers, and that's health care. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says the health care industry is hiring across the board, from doctors to bed pan attendants. Government jobs used to be a very good deal, particularly postal work and public school teaching. But the post office has been shrinking its payroll for several years. And public school employment, which is kindergarten through high school, was up through August to nearly 8.1 million jobs, but it has fallen each month since then because of declining tax revenues.