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Recessions

Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2020 7:29 pm
by vnatale
Good history of recessions....

Vinny

Gauging The Next Recession’s Severity

https://www.fa-mag.com/news/gauging-the ... 44979.html

Re: Recessions

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2020 12:47 am
by europeanwizard
That's a good one, and certainly puts things in perspective.

What I always found weird, is that it may never really concern you. A couple of years ago, I quit my job and started subcontracting in IT. Before I started however, I asked experienced freelancers: "how hard were you hit in the 2009 recession".

I had to rephrase that, and ask "do you know other freelancers who didn't have a project in 2009"? People knew at most one other freelancer who didn't have a project for up to three months.

In a recession, there are whole parts of the industry that simply don't notice anything (teachers, government, semi-government), some that notice a little bit (tech freelancers) and some that get hit hard (like the hospitality sector right now). It's completely lobsided, and back then, it was a bit of a revelation to me.

Re: Recessions

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2020 7:31 am
by vnatale
europeanwizard wrote: Tue Sep 01, 2020 12:47 am That's a good one, and certainly puts things in perspective.

What I always found weird, is that it may never really concern you. A couple of years ago, I quit my job and started subcontracting in IT. Before I started however, I asked experienced freelancers: "how hard were you hit in the 2009 recession".

I had to rephrase that, and ask "do you know other freelancers who didn't have a project in 2009"? People knew at most one other freelancer who didn't have a project for up to three months.

In a recession, there are whole parts of the industry that simply don't notice anything (teachers, government, semi-government), some that notice a little bit (tech freelancers) and some that get hit hard (like the hospitality sector right now). It's completely lobsided, and back then, it was a bit of a revelation to me.
So true!

Vinny

Re: Recessions

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2020 5:10 pm
by Kriegsspiel
europeanwizard wrote: Tue Sep 01, 2020 12:47 am What I always found weird, is that it may never really concern you. A couple of years ago, I quit my job and started subcontracting in IT. Before I started however, I asked experienced freelancers: "how hard were you hit in the 2009 recession".

I had to rephrase that, and ask "do you know other freelancers who didn't have a project in 2009"? People knew at most one other freelancer who didn't have a project for up to three months.

In a recession, there are whole parts of the industry that simply don't notice anything (teachers, government, semi-government), some that notice a little bit (tech freelancers) and some that get hit hard (like the hospitality sector right now). It's completely lobsided, and back then, it was a bit of a revelation to me.
I've found I also really like the "contracting" flow of working on something for a while, with an end date, and then finding another thing to do after a period of chilling out.