My company isn't doing layoffs (yet), but the next year or so is precisely what I'm worried about. I've been at my company for about 1.5 years, and, absent coronavirus, I'm very confident I'd be in no danger of losing my job.

Right now, taking the risk of jumping to a new company doesn't sound appealing. But, if this goes on too long, I'm sure we'll end up doing layoffs at some point. We're already on a hiring freeze, and there are a lot of cost counting and cost saving projects going on right now.

If layoffs do come, though I may be better off than my many coworkers on visas, a job search in the middle of a recession does not sound like any fun. And, layoffs can tend to come in waves, so, even if I make the first cut, there could very well be another round coming in a matter of weeks or months. In that case, I would rather not be around for the second wave of layoffs. I think this scenario is the only one in which taking the risk of switching companies makes any sense.

>a job search in the middle of a recession does not sound like any fun

During the dot-com bust, I was very lucky. I had lunch with someone I knew just a few days after I was laid off for dot-com bust related reasons. And he ended up hiring me about a month later.

However, during the interim I was job hunting, including meeting with various other executives I knew and I don't think I had so much as a nibble. And, of course, at least at the moment, there aren't a lot of service sector jobs you can take just to keep some money rolling in.

Just before the dot-com bust, I decided to return to college for my masters degree. This turned out to be a good decision because soon after the bust so many were clamoring to get admitted but I was already established in my studies and I had cashed out some investments to fund my education.