4 Bulletproof Ways to Protect Yourself Against Layoffs in 2024
These immediate actions can save you
2023 has already seen unprecedented layoffs across the technology sector. Companies like Meta, Dell, Amazon, Twitter, Lyft, Snap and many more executed significant reductions in force.
According to Crunchbase, more than 188,568 U.S.-based tech company employees (or those with a large U.S. workforce) have been laid off in mass job cuts.
And the cuts run deeper than just technology. According to various market analysis firms, significant layoffs have already occurred or are anticipated across sectors like media/entertainment, manufacturing, finance, transportation, and real estate.
With inflation still high, interest rates projected to rise further, the hype around overhiring during the pandemic cooling off, and talk of a recession in 2024, workforce reductions might continue, spreading into new sectors.
Companies tied to discretionary consumer spending in areas like travel, fitness, real estate, and transportation could make aggressive cuts if household budgets tighten up more.
While it’s understandable for employees to feel angry, frustrated, or panicked in this climate, succumb to those emotions and cede control.
Instead, view mounting layoffs as a call to action — a chance to control what you can control by proactively preparing your career to weather turbulent times ahead in 2024.
Here are four ways to get yourself career-ready in case the layoffs come your way.
1. Build your personal brand
The more standalone value you have as an individual professional, the better.
Make yourself recognizable in your niche by consistently sharing valuable insights via mediums like:
- A personal website or blog
- Guest articles for industry publications
- LinkedIn Publishing or a Substack newsletter
- Speaking engagements at conferences/meetups
- Social channels like Twitter and Instagram
Commit to steadily producing personal content highlighting your unique expertise. That way, in a layoff, decision-makers are far more likely to view you as a critical resource worth holding onto or recall you as a domain standout worth rehiring quickly.
2. Create a side hustle
Start developing a solo revenue stream in your spare time before job loss necessitates it.
Supplemental cash can be invaluable if you get cut. That way, you aren’t only living off savings during unemployment.
Some ways to leverage your marketable skills into side income include consulting, selling specialized digital products on Etsy or TeachersPayTeachers, tutoring, proofreading, providing virtual assistance, building apps or websites for clients, and other freelancing alternatives.
You can start small while employed with just a few hours a week, then scale up if layoffs come.
Don’t wait until an emergency to begin constructing auxiliary income pipelines.
If you need help figuring out how to build a successful freelancing career from scratch leveraging LinkedIn and Upwork, check out my specialized course. It’d be all the help you needed.
Check out details here — The Digital Millionaire.
3. Aggressively network
Who you know will be critically important if layoffs come, so start cementing relationships now.
Reach out for informational interviews with leaders in your functional space and industry veterans.
Furthermore, seek out ambitious peers within your company and externally to trade advice. Get involved with professional associations, engage actively with related Meetup groups nearby, and consider volunteer work that expands your connections.
Strengthen bonds deliberately on platforms like LinkedIn by regularly engaging with content from your network. When layoff notices come, you want decision-makers and potential references already familiar with the value you deliver.
4. Keep skills sharp
Complacency breeds obsolescence, while proactive learning enables adaptability and resilience.
Get cross-trained in adjacent speciality areas at work. Take on stretch assignments and sideways moves that build breadth. Earn nano degrees in emerging technologies if that interests you.
Online learning platforms like Udacity, Coursera, Udemy, and LinkedIn Learning make it easy today. Take advantage.
That was how I began to learn digital marketing in 2019, and when COVID came in 2020, that investment in personal development helped me pivot to Web/Blog writing, which I do and live from today.
The wider your toolkit, the more workforce optionality you grant yourself.
While loyalty and tenure offer no ultimate job loss protection, preparation grants you the career insurance no employer can provide. Control what you can control and ready yourself to outlast any 2024 layoff waves.
Wrapping Up
With significant layoffs underway across technology, media, finance and other sectors in 2023, experts anticipate this workforce disruption spreading in 2024 as economic uncertainty continues.
However, panic solves nothing.
Rather than rage or worry, channel energy into readying your career now for resilience.
Build a personal brand that highlights your differentiated value.
Construct secondary income streams through side hustles while still employed.
Intentionally expand your network.
And keep skills flexible and competitive through continual upskilling.
While you can’t always prevent job loss, you can ensure you have the profile and connections to rebound quickly. Take charge of your career durability so you can confidently withstand whatever professional turbulence 2024 brings.
Feel free to check out my inspiring transition — 9–5 to freelancing — story.
I hope this helps you. If it did, be sure to clap me a thousand times (joking, a few tens would do), leave me a comment (it will encourage me a lot — smiles), and share this with someone you know needs it (they say sharing is caring).
