The U.S. economy may be sinking deeper into recession and companies are shedding hundreds of thousands of jobs, but the technology firms that Santa Fe-based venture capitalist Trevor Loy invests in haven’t stopped growing.

In fact, they’re still adding to their payrolls, and they plan to continue doing so.

The firms that Loy is funding are developing products such as state-of-the-art water-purification systems and the next generation of surveying cameras for construction sites. They’re part of a select swath of the U.S. economy that has been protected — so far — from the bad economic weather. They’re health care providers, information technology firms, green energy startups and other firms that, while not thriving, are at least still hiring.

“The end markets they serve are not shrinking,” Loy says of some of the more than two dozen companies that his Flywheel Ventures is funding. “The world’s need for clean water, for clean energy, especially if there’s infrastructure stimulus, will be growing, and companies working with new technology can act more quickly than traditional companies can.”

Such startup firms also generally don’t depend on the short-term financing that large companies need, which means they haven’t been hit as hard by the shriveling of credit markets, Loy says. He also sees growth for tech companies that help other firms cut back on staffing and energy costs.

Education and health services historically have been resistant to economic downturns because they’re often the last items on local government and household budgets to be axed, says Gary Burtless, a labor economist at the Brookings Institution, a policy research organization in Washington. Demand for education also is growing as unemployed workers go back to school to beef up their resumes, Burtless says, “and you’re not going to postpone your surgery just because the economy’s bad.”

Also growing are jobs that help companies ramp up sales or cut employees to survive the bad economic times. For example, sales representatives, followed by account/customer support professionals, topped a recent list of the most recession-proof jobs compiled by Jobfox, a job matching and introductions site (see sidebar).

“In this environment, sales needs are huge,” says Jobfox spokesman Barry Lawrence. “You can’t get out of this situation unless you sell goods and services.”

Lawrence says the biggest area of job growth remains in information technology, especially for small- and medium-sized companies that can adapt more nimbly to changing economic realities. “(Information technology) is just embedded in every company and nonprofit,” he says. “It’s a huge, important role that every business has to have.”

President Obama’s championing of alternative energy also bodes well for firms researching and developing such innovations, even if the results take years to hit the market, says Emily Mendell, vice president of strategic affairs for the National Venture Capital Association.