How To Conduct a Recession Job Search: Work With a Staffing Agency

Brian Moore April 2, 2025 Reading Time: < 3 minutes

Recession . The word sparks fear, anxiety, doubt … the list goes on. Unemployment rises, retail sales fall, the economy flounders. Forbes calls it a “significant decline in economic activity that lasts for months or even years.” The National Bureau of Economic Research defines a recession as a decline “in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales.” For the average person, a recession means a real risk of losing a job; possible cuts to pay or benefits; investment losses; difficulty getting loans; and increased stress.

Job losses are common and damaging — for everyday Americans and the economy alike — during a recession. The problem is twofold: You could lose your primary source of income, and because so many people are out of work, a recession job search can be quite difficult. Help is out there, though. Working with a staffing agency can help you cut through the sea of job seekers and emerge from a turbulent time on sturdier ground. Here’s how.

Opens Doors to New Opportunities

During periods of high unemployment, staffing agency recruiters can introduce job seekers to opportunities that tend to thrive in spite of a recession: contract or temporary positions. Companies are much more likely to rely on a temporary workforce amid economic uncertainty. That’s because temporary workers enable a business to adjust their labor levels quickly from day to day. For job seekers, contract work provides flexibility and the ability to test drive different business environments and working hours.

Often called gig economy employees, temp workers soared in popularity during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, with the economy in a continual uncertain state in 2022, demand for temp workers cooled before picking up again in October 2024, according to Staffing Industry Analysts. By 2027, an estimated 86.5 million people will be working a contingent job, according to Forbes. That’s half of the total U.S. workforce.

Recruiters can introduce you to this growing employment trend and connect you with positions that match your skills and your career goals, even during a recession. Medix, for instance, places talent in temporary and temp-to-perm roles with our healthcare, life sciences, and healthcare technology clients. Our talent can “try it before they buy it” with their career choices.

Helps You Explore Other Industries

A recession job search might necessitate thinking outside your box. You have worked in industry X for a number of years and accumulated institutional knowledge that served you well, but now you’re a free agent. Those skills and that experience might be useful in a different industry. A recruiter or staffing agency can help you explore where your background fits best — even if it’s an industry you’ve never considered or a role you’ve never held.

Both your hard skills, such as education and technical training, and soft skills, like leadership experience and working style, can be applied to roles in industries outside of your current area of expertise. How might this work in the real world? Let’s go back to 2020 when COVID-19 quarantines decimated the hospitality industry, leaving workers jobless. Some of those employees were able to use their customer service skills and pivot to positions in high demand, such as temperature takers.

Recruiters are experts in matching skill sets with positions, regardless of the specific industry background you might have. In times of recession, you can count on a recruiter to make sure your skills are being used in the best possible way.

Recruiters Are Your Allies

Recruiters work to serve job seekers. A recession job search can be daunting — and the stakes are high. When you work with a recruiter, you don’t have to do it all alone. Staffing partners have access to positions that aren’t posted anywhere else and can even get your name in front of companies you may not know about. They’re able to recommend you for opportunities based on both your hard and soft skills, and they’ll fight for you throughout the recruitment process. After all, they don’t get paid unless you get the job.

Recruiters also offer additional professional development services beyond job searches — resume review, interviewing prep, and more. When the world is uncertain, you need someone in your corner, and recruiters are your perfect job search ally.

The Medix Alliance

Although predicting a recession is a fool’s errand, 75% of chief financial officers in a recent CNBC survey said they expect a recession in the second half of 2025 or in 2026.

Let’s hope they’re wrong, but if the economy slumps into recession, Medix and our team of experienced recruiters will be here to help anyone who needs to conduct a recession job search. If it’s general career advice you need, we have that too. Explore our career insights.