There is a growing sense among the economics profession that a recession is on the horizon.  A new study from Georgia State University explores what kind of skills might help people to successfully weather such a storm.

The research, which the authors believe is the first to explore the role skills play in the ability of an area to recover from economic downturns, finds that high cognitive and people skills are crucial.

“Existing studies show that recessions reinforce trends already in place, so we looked at the data in light of multiple recessions, especially the Great Recession. With each recession, it seemed to take the economy longer to recover, and we wanted to understand that particular trend,” the authors say.  “In the Great Recession, for example, more than 8.6 million people across the country lost their jobs, but not always in proportionate amounts to their community populations.”

Recession proof

The researchers looked at cities where people typically had high levels of both cognitive and people skills alongside other cities where there was a greater concentration of motor skills.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, they found that cities where motor skills were to the fore fared worse during a recession than those with cognitive or people skills to the fore.

This not only resulted in the recession biting those areas less deeply, but cities with high concentrations of cognitive workers also managed to bounce back from the recession faster.

“Occupational data shows that people with cognitive skills also tend to have people skills, and it’s the ability to relate to people that is most important in reducing the length of time it takes a city to return to pre-recession levels,” the researchers say.

What’s more, these skills aid the transition from one career to another, which is invaluable after a recession that may have seen industries and professions indelibly disrupted.  As such, the authors urge policy makers to do all they can to help people who predominantly rely on motor skills to also develop people skills to help them make adaptations to their career.

As I’ve written before however, this is by no means easy, and there are various cultural barriers to successfully engaging in education among those who have historically not done so.  It’s a challenge that policy makers need to successfully overcome however, especially if they are to develop resilience among people.