According to a report published by Jobfox in October, 2008: yes.

Notable in the report of the top 25 recession-proof jobs: Software Design and Development ranked number 5 on the list of, Product Management was ranked number 23 (although depending on how you define Software Product Management, it could technically be lumped into the Software Design and Development category, since traditional Product Management could involve physical products.)

And the best region for Product Managers and User Interface Design work?  Silicon Valley, of course.

I’d like to believe this report, but I have a feeling that the method they used may not be the best.  The sample data came from Jobfox’s own database of job postings, which may skew heavily towards tech-related jobs:

For [a] 120-day period, Jobfox extracted a stratified random sample of more than 4,000 U.S. job openings from more than 2,000 employers from its database. From the sample, Jobfox
identified more than 150 distinct professions for which employers were seeking candidates. This report focuses on the professions that were most often the targets of Jobfox employers.

Even a “random sample” will produce a lean in one direction if a majority of the job openings posted were for a particular industry.

But there is a fairly solid argument to be made that there will always be a market for people with the skill set required to build new technology, especially at a time like now where technology will define who wins in loses in the global economic race.

Filed under: Product Management