This is favouring the market leaders most, says Heidi Gardner of Harvard Business School, because the crisis has made governments risk-averse about whom they hire.
During the relatively modest downturn at the start of this decade, for example, many professional-services firms cut too deeply, especially in their lower ranks, and found they were poorly positioned when strong growth resumed sooner than expected, says Heidi Gardner of Harvard Business School.
Intriguingly, the voucher debate has pitched civil-rights-era black leaders and teachers' unions, who oppose the idea, against supporters ranging from the conservative governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, to the leftist head of the Milwaukee school board, John Gardner, a labour organiser who once led a campaign to support Cesar Chavez, the founder of the migrant farm-workers' union.