I was never laid off because I never had a job, but I lived through those 2 downturns and many people I know got laid off. As I lived in EU countries, they got

I was never laid off because I never had a job, but I lived through those 2 downturns and many people I know got laid off. As I lived in EU countries, they got unemployment benefits without issues, but even then some sold their houses and also got jobs they were overqualified for and that made less money, because you cannot predict how long a crisis will last. There was never a job issue in these previous two downturns for good developers with good resumes, even if they had to be laid off. Cannot imagine that will be different this time. Always good to cut costs as far as you can to make sure you have cash saved in case it really goes bad. There was/is lot of money slushing around in startups/companies that are not doing well for traditional standards (p/e for instance); they might fall quickly when things get worse. If you work in one of those, you might already want to try to jump over to a (big) traditional corp that is running healthy profits. Something boring that hasn’t been propped up with a lot of vc money or hype. Might pay less but it will probably weather the storm.