A lot of the people I fly with at least have a background in IT they can go back to......they hated it so much first time round that they self selected themselves to be pilots but ho hum.
i think the idea you can just retrain is incredibly naive and simplistic. Most captains pay is in line with say, a junior NHS consultant, ie it’s not something you can do a 6 month correspondence course and be back at the pay level you were before.
And if not, do something in demand, like bus driver that requires a bit of training but no rocket science .
the notion bricklaying is recession proof , seems a tad dubious as well