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You can dispute whether or not we are in a true "recession", but it's undeniable that a lot of people are uneasy about the future of their jobs.

Just this morning when I was walking through Harvard Square, I passed by a few construction workers on their coffee break. I overhead one of them say "Yea I'd be better off investing in a Santa suit and walking around going 'ho! ho! ho!". The thought of him resorting to working at a mall and listening to some little kid's Christmas list did make me laugh, but I got to thinking, how many people are going to end up taking unusual jobs veering away from their original plans?

We all had our dream jobs for after college. Mine was to be a high-end public relations specialist, which really isn't that different than writing for a glamour magazine or planning couture fashion events or creating T.V. ads for exciting new products. They are all virtually unattainable in today's economy. A lucky few may end up at Elle, but for most of us we found a happy medium between something we like doing and something that pays the bills.

But don't fret if Nina Garcia isn't knocking on your door. Did you know that the average person changes careers (not jobs) an average of five times in their life? So if the industry you're in is in a slump (or if you just hate your job), there still may be hope for a promising career change in the future.

Boston.com featured a story last week entitled "Recession-proof? The economy's effect on hot jobs". They highlighted a number of jobs that The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) predicted would grow rapidly between 2006 and 2016. Despite recent troubles in the economy, they managed to come up with 15 careers that are "recession proof" (Santa suits aside). A few of note were Clinical, counseling, and school psychologists (your always going to have messed up kids) and clergy (more people praying to God to get them out of debt!).