[laurentl]

Look for anti-cyclical companies and more generally “value” companies (in opposition to growth companies). This means large companies in banking, insurance, telcos... Consider that everyone has to purchase home and car insurance, whether the economy is booming or in a recession. Everyone will still have a mobile plan and/or an internet connection. Everyone will still buy groceries at Walmart. Any sector that grows slowly during economic booms will shrink slowly in a recession.

Other factors: the bigger the company, the more inertia it has (assuming your job suppports its core business; even large companies will cut side or non-essential activities if the economic forecast is bad). B2B companies are less exposed to a recession at first, because of longer contracts and decision cycles in enterprise customers (it’s relatively easy and quick for an individual to downgrade their internet plan to save money; it takes much longer for a large company to renegotiate a telco contract). Defense is always a safe bet.

So basically the bigger the company, the more boring and/or morally dubious the sector, the better :D