A Tale of Two Cities March 5, 2021 Shutterstock As COVID-19 changes the working landscape, staffing firms have adapted to higher demand for remote work, skills shortages and an expanded, nationwide candidate pool. You may have heard the term “recession-proof industry,” referring to a type of business that can weather, and sometimes thrive, amid an economic downturn. Typically, the staffing sector benefits from economic downturns.Companies forced into layoffs need more temps to handle runoff work. For staffing firm headhunters, more highly skilled professionals newly out of work mean a larger roster of qualified candidates. While most of these trends have held true for the COVID-19 downturn, the pandemic has accelerated trends in working remotely and has had disproportionate impacts on certain segments of the economy.