Dealing with the off-season in the trades

Second Sunday Series – Editor’s Note: This is one of 12 columns on work in the trades appearing over 12 months – one each on the second Sunday of the month. Today we review strategies for handling seasonal layoffs in the trades.

If you are employed in the trades, you might be familiar with the pattern of regular or intermittent layoffs that sometimes accompanies this world of work.

For those in manufacturing or truck driving, the slowdown may be related to production issues or even global factors such as declining orders from tariffs or distribution problems. For those in seasonal occupations, such as landscaping or road construction, the layoffs may be anticipated rather than intermittent. In this case, they’re also likely to be longer in duration.

Whatever the reason or pattern, these situations give workers the same basic problem to solve: What to do with the downtime, and the potential loss of income? In some cases, concern about this problem may even prevent candidates from entering the fields that most interest them. That’s unfortunate, because there may be ways to accommodate work interruptions, or even prosper from them.

Following are a handful of options to consider when anticipating temporary layoffs in your work.

Ride it out. It’s common for workers to simply apply for unemployment, or perhaps take on a temporary assignment elsewhere, while waiting for work to pick up in their field. While it can be financially challenging, many call this a bonus in terms of managing household projects or other personal concerns. Others use the time to add certifications or strengthen their overall skill sets.

Travel with the season. If your employer is national, you may be able to travel to other parts of the country to job sites that are still operating. You can also set this system up for yourself, by hiring out to employers in other states when you’re on pause at home. In that case, you’ll likely be responsible for your own housing, so it helps to choose areas where you have family or friends who can host you.

Swap seasons with “interlocking” trades. In areas where the weather creates a hard stop, it’s not uncommon to find the same worker employed in two different industries, depending on the season. Landscape workers who switch to snow removal are the classic example in states with distinct winters.

Create your own offseason pursuit. I once knew a construction worker who hopped on a plane every year when the first snowflakes fell, on his way to a small business he’d started in South America offering bike tours to adventure travelers. Then, just when the flow of tourists was diminishing, the prospect of construction work back in the Midwest would be warming up. To be honest, he was doing doubleduty during construction season, managing the bookings for the biking business after work each day. But even so, he seemed to feel that the extra effort was a good tradeoff.

As a less dramatic form of self-employment, it’s common for workers to use their downtime building up online businesses, pumping up production on homemade items to sell, or just working independently in the same field they’re laid off from.

There are likely more downtime strategies than these four, but whichever path you take, there will be some constants if you choose a field where temporary layoffs are likely. One constant is the need to watch your finances, to avoid taking on debt that would be difficult to repay in the off-season. Another thing many people report is feeling compelled to work extra hours or postpone vacations during the work season with the highest income potential. As you can guess, this suits some families better than others, so it’s a factor that needs to be accommodated in your planning.

What if you really don’t like the idea of having your work interrupted, even with these alternative ways to use your time? The obvious solution would be to choose a different career path. Before you do that, however, explore whether your first choice of work might be more flexible than you think.

For example, if you want to work in a trade related to housing, consider that newhome construction might take a seasonal pause while home remodeling would tend to go year-round.

As another alternative, if you have a second skill set to offer your employer, such as making sales calls or estimating project costs, you may be able to switch to an office role during your company’s off-season.

However you handle the layoff scenario, rest assured: The trades are robust, and you should not feel scared off by the possibility of interim work shortages. One way or another, you’ll be able to find a scenario that works for you. Amy Lindgren owns Prototype Career Service, a career consulting firm in St. Paul. She can be reached at alindgren@ prototypecareerservice.com or at 626 Armstrong Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55102.