According to the latest McKinsey Quarterly, 30% of companies expect to shrink their workforces over the next year. In another report, the consultancy says it's time for companies to re-think off-shoring.

"...soaring oil prices, a falling dollar, and rising wages are undermining some of the reasons manufacturers moved offshore," the report says.

So, if you should find yourself out of work one day, you may be quickly rehired into a "repatriated job" a short time later?

Yes, I am over-simplifying the shift versus shrink mindset.

Unlike many other business people, I am thinking positive thoughts. I am thinking of certain kind of character from a certain generation of grandparents who seemed to enjoy the Great Depression. Having lived through the 1930s, no news of another recession, or other hard times, could get them down. Instead, they'd start to look forward to everyone pulling together and becoming closer.  

One grandmother I knew would start planning where all the relatives who would need to move in with her would sleep, she'd get out the hand-written recipes for "cheap and cheerful" meals and decide how to manage the hand-me-down clothes chain for the children. Writing the text makes it sound like a joke, but it's not. Her whole outlook was full of love.

What I learned from her is this: the opportunity for change is always positive. Here are some positive changes that, I think, could come out of times like these:

1. Teenagers being taken out of service sector jobs. Part-time McJobs have been on the way out for middle-class young people for a while now. It's time for kids from poorer backgrounds to get out too. They'll be replaced by retired workers who need to return to the work force out of financial necessity. Teens will be needed at home after school to help care for elders, babysit and do household chores, like cooking, because fast food meals will become too expensive. Parents will increase the pressure on their children to do well in school.

If there is a more common return to extended family-living situations, a trend foreclosures has already spurred, kids and teens will have more adult supervision from grandparents, aunts and uncles to actually ensure that there is consistent follow-through on expectations.

2. Anyone with a connection to the farm will go back there. It's an old story, but we all know the one about the kids who left home for the city, leaving Ma and Pa to putter around the big old farmhouse. Going home will ease the labour shortages in agriculture and help stem the use of illegal immigrants and/or victims of human trafficking to plant and harvest our food. Lack of cash resources will make the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides less common and, overall, the quality of the food supply will improve.

3. More democratic socialism. Now that so many banks are nothing but corporate welfare cases, why stop short of improving people's lives? We may finally see the rise of universal medical care in the US and a re-committment to it in Canada. The system will need an initial infusion of about 700 billion dollars, but overall, the cost of health care spending will fall due to falling rates of type II diabetes, lifestyle related heart disease and obesity (see part 2).   

The opportunities for recruiters will probably be interesting too. The more difficult the economy, the higher the priority on relationships. A new emphasis on trust and reputation will probably put an end to personality assessment-based hiring. More jobs will require more than one skill set for the sake of savings and efficiency and individuals will have greater variety in their jobs and lives. Family run and independent businesses will see a small renaissance and the importance of finding the perfect individual will rise. I, for one, am kind of looking forward to the new world order.