Sales Is Top Recession-Proof Job, Report Says

Experienced sales representatives, software developers and nurses are the professionals best able to weather continued job erosion in the weakened U.S. economy, according to a new special report from Jobfox, a job-matching Web site.

The report identifies professions that have most consistently remained in the highest demand over a more than eight-month period dating from November 2007 through July 2008.

The top five most recession-proof professions, identified in the report, are:

1. Sales Representative/Business Development
2. Software Design/Development
3. Nursing
4. Accounting & Finance Executive
5. Accounting Staff

Good sales representatives remain in high demand as companies battle for revenue and market share in a sluggish marketplace, according to the report.

Rounding out the top 10 on the Jobfox Top 20 Most Recession-Proof Professions list are:

6. Networking/Systems Administration
7. Administrative Assistant
8. Business Analysis: Software Implementation
9. Business Analysis: Research
10. Finance Staff

The technology sector has the most recession-busting professions in the Top 20, including Testing/Quality Assurance, Database Administration and Technology Executive.

The most recession-proof professions are identified as those with the best median monthly rankings over this time period. Monthly rankings are based on a stratified random sample of more than 4,000 U.S. job openings posted on Jobfox. More than 150 distinct professions are analyzed.

The Jobfox report also includes July's rankings of the most wanted job candidates during a 120-day period ending July 7, 2008.