Pops said: "What do you mean coming? Under and unemployment is 17%!"

Amen to that. We ARE post-peak, and into the slide down now.

I guess I'm ahead of the game! My engineering (auto industry) was looking bad 10 years ago, so I went to work in a tool and die shop--making MORE money! Well, the tool and die shop made tooling for-you guessed it-the auto industry. So, I started to work building a shop at home to do farm repairs. Farms aren't leaving here anytime soon. So now I make about 1/4 of what I once did. The upside is, I don't have to be laid off unless I want to be, since I own it.

I think we will have to invent our own jobs. Lots of people here are doing that now. Private contractors that do home repair, dig ditches (the hard way), cut firewood, build fences, auto mechanics, tractor repair, flea markets, and one guy that owns and operates a bungee jump concession at the local county fairs.

Be creative!

I am starting to get into local herbs and herbs I can grow. I think Herbalists Will be able to earn their keep, and the job is not too physically strenuous. Of course I still have my doomstead.

You know, if I really thought I could start a new doom-friendly career without missing a beat, I'd do it. The fact is, though, that unless you're right out of school or something, you have too much leveraged in your existing career to just drop it for something else. I know doomers have done that, but it's a huge leap to make, not something I can see myself doing until economic conditions force it upon me.

So my advice is the best career choice for the slow collapser is your existing career! Just focus your free time on "reskilling" all those Amish-level skills for when you finally lose your job and can't for the life of you get back in anymore.

Me too.

Latest AR Farm Repair courtesy DFP:

Pops-

That is funny you say that about graphics/printing. My wife and I were just saying how many of those type of businesses exist in this area (some very big ones too--Inland Printing/Empire Screen Printing/others) and how sooner or later they are going to downsize or close up shop. Its amazing at this point all this work hasn't been exported to China or even Mexico. My wife was a graphic artist for some time and i worked at one of those places too. It was some of the most pointless work i've ever done We know some people that run a printing business (for probably 20+ years) and they live pretty well...so there must be some money in it. They've probably stuck a couple hundred thousand in the business in the past few years (remodeling). Waste of money in my opinion!

I know a few massage therapists. There seem to be a LOT of people doing that around here. I'm starting to think the whole medical field (outside of doctors/surgeons/etc) is about maxed out. A hospital only needs so many $25/hr RNs. This area is kind of built on the medical field, so maybe its just a local thing.

If you go on City-Data forums and poke around some of the threads in different cities, its interesting to see how many seem to have NO jobs! Its probably not a good time to be moving around.

Everyone in their brother seems to have a roofing or a lawn care service around here...

I think gunsmiths would be in demand. As would various agricultural professions such as farriers.

As an independent, you could do worse than importing a load of good quality evacuated tube passive thermal solar wotsits from China and setting up a local business with plumbers. I looked into this and the prices direct from China are dirt cheap. Get a container-load and you'd be set for a good while while you transition. Other products such as lathes are an option, but the markup isn't as good, as there is no installation.

It's true! I call advertising the Ultimate Air-Ball, but like lots of folks I made a good living at it for quite a while.

Lots of small print shops are closing and have been since computers/fedex/internet allowed them to gang small jobs together. There is one such plant not far from me and they are sending out emails weekly with whatever special they can come up with to drum up some bidness.

Throw in web advertising, the end of print news, full color desktop printers, digital cameras - local print shops are as old hat as lumber yards.

This is the kind of thing that I think everyone should think about whatever their career, things change all the time and they really can change fast. 25 years ago I was fairly cutting edge to be doing "desktop publishing" in a small market, I could charge a fraction what traditional designers did and get a better result in half the time.

Now toss in a situation where technology continues to move ahead but the economy is dragging and the changes will probably be even more jarring.

If you can hack it, the field of elder care is booming now and will only get better. There will be high-end care and bargain basement care with differing models, but demand will be high as the boomer-bubble ages. It would be best in many ways if children would care for their aging parents, but with fewer children for each parent and geographic dispersion (i.e. kids not living near their parents), it may not be that common.

Multi-skilled people will always be in demand. For example, our top HVAC/R techs have CDL/Hazmat licenses, automotive experience, and experience in construction, estimating, sales, woodworking, metalworking, plumbing, electrical, steam, boiler/furnace/hot water system design/service/repair/installation, control strategies, radiant, solar, A/C, refrigeration, alt-energy stoves/fireplaces/furnaces/boilers, gas/propane/oil burners, multi-fuel burners...

Fast Company's 10 Best Green Jobs for the Next Decade is an article that I've posted before in similar threads. It lists related fields and also suggests some universities.

I've also added 75 Green Businesses You Can Start to Make Money and Make A Difference to my wish list.

I think the overarching guideline in whatever you choose should be think local.

I think growing popular crops (tomatoes?) out of season would be a good deal. Using hoop houses and different methods can allow you to really extend the growing season and cash in when everyone else is at home crying. Also being near a big city would help so you could sell a lot of volume (i was at Whole Foods yesterday in Madison< WI...wow...you could hardly move in that place...lots of overpaid, health nuts in that city)...

There is nothing wrong with pooping in a bucket. Now taking a cold shower is a whole other ballpark.

I know a guy who's making a ton of money doing just that. He grows his tomatoes hydroponically. Not the tastiest ones I've ever had, but you can't beat local vine-fresh tomatoes in January.

+1 and find something you actually want to do! I'm making artists' pigments, paints and inks from plants I'm growing in my garden plot - indigo, madder, weld, and a few stranger items that were used in the Middle Ages. Thing is, I've become obsessed with these natural colors, and even if all my fears for the future wind up being complete bunk, I will continue to do this.

It took me a year or two of hard thinking to come up with this path for myself, but it's just perfect for me. Spend some time, think it through, there may be one perfect thing out there for you too. As per the thread title, this is for slow collapse, which I'm expecting (at least at first). There's a quite different backup plan for a worse scenario.