Yes the engineer can be an accountant but s/he needs to find someone to actually hire her/him. (I suspect you are in agreement on this point.) If the economy i

Yes the engineer can be an accountant but s/he needs to find someone to actually hire her/him. (I suspect you are in agreement on this point.) If the economy is down then companies don't hire many accountants, actuaries or analysts for the same reasons as they don't hire as many engineers. They also cut down on sales, management and most white collar jobs (and blue collar). So the hypothetical engineer is competing with experienced people for too few of these jobs as well. Similarly many companies prefer to hire recent graduates in these roles for the same reasons as with engineers. Many middle class jobs also have a qualification based barrier to entry (e.g. from your list accountants and actuaries in the UK+) that makes a career change difficult in good times let alone bad. + the training for both of these is usually on the job but why would you hire an ex-engineer you need to train in a job market where excellent skilled hires and fresh young graduates are plentiful.