>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.
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.