I worked for a company for 18 years as inventory control. That company was bought out by Sunoco Oil (who has sold it since) and my position was "eliminated," along with about 100 other jobs corporate wide. All of those who had their jobs "eliminated" had been with the company for years and years. They kept employees who had been there for 8 months, 11 months, etc.
I went back to school for Medical Transcription and have been working at home for nearly 6 years now. I make a decent salary. I am a regular employee with a company that actually has a building, employees that work on site, etc. I have vacation pay, sick pay, insurance, etc. That being said, the MT biz is taking big hits with sending work overseas to India, etc., though some hospitals won't allow their work to be off-shored. Pay rates are going DOWN instead of up. I haven't had an actual "raise" in 6 years. Since I am paid by production, I can make my own "raise" by working more hours, etc. That being said, I would NOT recommend this "profession" for anybody. Too much hard work, too much responsibility for too little pay. We also have a lot of work that has to be done that we DO NOT get paid for...i.e., looking up drugs, drug dosages, doctors at other hospitals, etc. Unless you are typing in a document, you don't get paid for it.
