What’s the best business to be in during a recession? Are some industries safer than others? Experts say there are, in fact, some recession-proof jobs that may be a better bet.

In the wake of the housing crisis, news abounds of a looming recession, with regular reports of financial gloom. It’s no wonder workers are fretting over finances and the employment outlook for the coming months, as a recent Hudson Employment Index shows. Workers shouldn’t worry, experts say. Jobs in some industries do have good potential for weathering a financial storm. It’s more important, though, for employees to focus on making themselves recession-proof.

Best Businesses During a Recession

Even during boom times no job is fail-safe. But some industries are safer havens than others, experts say, such as healthcare, the federal government, clean technology, information technology, and sales and marketing.

The dollar weakened past $1.51 per euro for the first time on mounting speculation a slumping economy will force Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke to cut interest rates through mid-year. The dollar dropped a fifth straight day as European Central Bank policy maker Axel Weber said investors expecting rate cuts in the region are underestimating inflation. The dollar’s slide gained momentum yesterday after an unexpected increase in German business confidence prompted traders to trim bets the ECB will lower rates. The currency fell to an all-time low against the Swiss franc and to a 23-year low versus the New Zealand dollar.

“The dollar is undermined by lower U.S. yields,” said Daniel Katzive, a senior currency strategist at Credit Suisse Group in New York. “I don’t think there’s much scope for that to change; the dollar will remain weak.”

The currency touched $1.5105 per euro, the weakest since the common currency’s debut in 1999, before trading at $1.5097 at 10:02 a.m. in New York, from $1.4974 yesterday. It fell to 106.05 yen from 107.28 yen, coming within about 1 percent of a 2 1/2-year low reached in January, and dropped as low as 1.0635 francs, from 1.0756. The euro fell to 160.02 yen from 160.67.

The U.S. currency has slid 4 percent against the euro in the past three weeks as the housing slump deepened and consumer confidence tumbled, leading traders to abandon bets the dollar and the economy would rebound as the Fed cut rates. The dollar will rebound to $1.45 per euro by mid-year, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of 41 analysts.

Bernanke Speaks

Bernanke said today the Fed “will act in a timely manner” to insure against “downside risks” to the economy. His remarks came in semi-annual testimony to the House Financial Services Committee in Washington. Futures on the Chicago Board of Trade show most traders expect the Fed to cut rates to at least 2 percent by mid-year, from 3 percent now. The bank has slashed rates from 5.25 percent in September.

“We’re in a new regime for the dollar,” said Bilal Hafeez, London-based global head of currency strategy at Deutsche Bank AG, the world’s biggest foreign-exchange trader. “The proximate cause has been European data, which has indicated that Europe hasn’t suffered on the growth side as the U.S. has.”

The euro may rise to $1.55 by March 31, Hafeez predicted.

The New Zealand dollar rose to 82.13 U.S. cents from 81.71 cents on speculation the interest-rate differential will widen in favor of assets outside of the U.S. The Australian dollar climbed to 94.12 U.S. cents, from 93.38, reaching the strongest since 1984. New Zealand’s key interest rate is 5.25 percentage points higher than the Fed’s 3 percent rate. Australia’s is 4 percentage points more.

Synthetic Euro

A Fed trade-weighted index of the dollar against major currencies has fallen about 11 percent in the past year. The U.S. Dollar Index traded on ICE Futures in York, which tracks the currency against six major counterparts, dropped to 74.23 today, the lowest since the gauge started in 1973.

The currency also dropped to an all-time low of $1.5105 against the synthetic euro, a theoretical value that estimates the European currency’s price as far back as January 1989, when Bloomberg’s data on the series begin.

The dollar extended losses after a government report showed orders for U.S. durable goods fell last month. Orders dropped 5.3 percent, following an increase of 4.4 percent the previous month, the Commerce Department said. The median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey was for a decline of 4 percent.

The U.S. currency has dropped 12 percent versus the euro in the past year. It has weakened against all but one of the 16 most-active currencies as subprime-mortgage losses, the worst housing market in 25 years and soaring credit costs spurred the Fed to cut rates five times since Sept. 18.

Contrast With ECB

By contrast, the ECB has held its main lending rate at a six-year high of 4 percent since June to counter inflation pressures from surging food and oil prices. Traders increased wagers on rate cuts after ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet on Feb. 7 dropped a threat to raise borrowing costs and said uncertainty about economic growth is “unusually high.”

“The consensus expectation for interest rates on the market at the moment clearly underestimates, in my opinion, the inflation risks,” Weber said today, according to the text of a speech in Bonn. “In 2009, inflation will not slow as markedly as supposed in the December projections, which were based on lower oil prices.”

The euro at $1.45 isn’t the “hurdle” the ECB thought it was, council member Nout Wellink said today in an interview in New York. Europe’s economy is in “rather good shape,” he said.

The slump in the dollar helped push oil prices to a record above $102 today and increased the cost of buying wheat, sugar, copper, cotton, cocoa and precious metals.

`Vicious Cycle’

“We’re talking about a vicious cycle if you look at price increases in commodities,” said Stephen Jen, Morgan Stanley’s global currency economist in London. “The dollar weakens first, then food and oil prices rise, which complicates policy-making. At this point, the dollar is hurting itself.”

All of the 10 most-active currencies in Asia outside Japan gained against the U.S. currency today. Thailand’s baht advanced to the highest since August 1997 as the central bank kept its benchmark rate unchanged at 3.25 percent for a fifth straight meeting. The currency rose 0.1 percent to 30.09 per dollar.

The currency will continue to trade below $1.50 for the next few weeks, Robert Sinche, head of global currency strategy at Bank of America N.A. in New York, wrote in a research note dated today.

“It’s crunch time for the dollar,” said Yuji Saito, head of foreign-exchange sales in Tokyo at Societe Generale SA, a unit of France’s second-largest bank by market value. “Bernanke may know that monetary policy alone cannot support the slowing U.S. economy.”

Rebound Forecast

New home sales dropped 2.8 percent to an annual pace of 588,000 last month, the lowest pace since 1995, the Commerce Department said.

The dollar will rebound to $1.48 per euro by the end of March, according to the median forecast in Bloomberg’s survey. Merrill Lynch & Co., the third-biggest U.S. securities firm, is the most bearish, predicting it will fall to $1.57 per euro by the end of March.

Futures on the Chicago Board of Trade show traders see a 100 percent chance the U.S. central bank will reduce the 3 percent target rate for overnight lending between banks by at least 50 basis points at their March 18 meeting, and an 8 percent likelihood of a cut to 2.25 percent. For the April 30 meeting, 83 percent expect a cut to 2.25 percent, while 58 percent see a reduction to 2 percent at the June 25 meeting.

The euro also gained as a government report showed import prices in Germany, an early indicator of inflation pressure in the region’s biggest economy, rose the most in 16 months in January.

The single currency got a boost yesterday after the Munich- based Ifo institute said its business climate index rose to 104.1 from 103.4 in January, exceeding the 102.9 median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey and leading traders to pare bets the ECB will lower rates.