If you're part of a larger corporation, observe both your own units profits and revenue, and that of other units. Know where it comes from, and how long it can be sustained.

Circa 2009 we had a layoff (we weren't the only ones) despite being profitable. The warning signs were obvious (to me at least, everyone else seemed caught off guard). We were profitable, but our most profitable project was coming to a close (a massive retrofit project for US military vehicles, they'd nearly finished retrofitting the entire fleet so the amount of work was due to drop massively). Despite that, we were still very profitable but without the same margins. The other divisions, however, were all losing money. Corporate didn't want to lose them, it was better to scale them back and rebuild after the recession (a large amount of other revenue our division was in both new construction and renovation of office and industrial buildings, which obviously weren't happening as much in 2009). Knowing where money comes into the corporation is critical for understanding how national/world events will impact it.