VOA标准英语2012--Problems Persist, Despite Better Than Expected US Job Gains
时间：2019-01-14 作者：英语课 分类：VOA标准英语2012年(十二月)
Problems Persist, Despite Better Than Expected US Job Gains
Despite wreaking 1 havoc 2 in the Northeast states and devastating 3 hundreds of businesses, Hurricane Sandy's impact on jobs appears to have been minimal 4. The Bureau of Labor 5 Statistics says U.S. companies hired more workers than expected in November, sending the nation's unemployment rate to a four-year low.
But Yahoo Finance expert Aaron Task said the rate fell for the wrong reasons.
"A lot of people dropped out of the labor force. That's why the unemployment rate went down, not because 146,000 jobs were added. You had over 300,000 people who essentially 6 gave up looking for jobs," said Task.
Others say unemployment is becoming chronic 7. Although the economy has been recovering for three years, labor market economist 8 Heidi Shierholz said the job market is still in crisis mode.
"Over the last year, we have seen some real improvement but it's been so modest and the hole we have to dig out of is so steep that we literally 9 have a gap in the labor market of around nine million jobs," said economist Heidi Shierholz.
Instead of focusing on how many Americans are out of work, Chuck Vollmer - a blogger and author of the book "Jobenomics" - said U.S. policy must address ways to expand the current workforce 10, estimated at more than 100 million.
"People tend to look at the unemployment numbers. What I'm saying, let's look at the employment numbers, let's look at this bottom group here, the 122 or the 102 million and let's grow it to 122 million," said Vollmer.
To do that, Vollmer said U.S. policy needs to be more supportive of small businesses.
But a bigger economic threat may be looming 11 by year's end.
At a Senate hearing Thursday, economist Mark Zandi warned that political dysfunction and the inability of Washington lawmakers to deal with coming tax hikes and budget cuts - the so called fiscal 12 cliff - could lead to a loss in business confidence.
"It hasn't affected 13 hiring and layoff 14 decisions yet, but it will if we get into next year and we get into February and we haven't nailed this down, the economy and investors 15 will bail 16 and the economy will begin to struggle," said Zandi.
On Wall Street, investors paid little attention to long-term issues and focused more on the better-than-expected numbers, pushing major stock indexes firmly into positive territory.
- Coal mining is a messy business, often wreaking terrible environmental damage nearby. 采矿是肮脏的行业，往往会严重破坏周边环境。
- The floods are wreaking havoc in low-lying areas. 洪水正在地势低洼地区肆虐。
- The earthquake wreaked havoc on the city.地震对这个城市造成了大破坏。
- This concentration of airborne firepower wrought havoc with the enemy forces.这次机载火力的集中攻击给敌军造成很大破坏。
- It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
- Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。
- They referred to this kind of art as minimal art.他们把这种艺术叫微型艺术。
- I stayed with friends, so my expenses were minimal.我住在朋友家，所以我的花费很小。
- We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
- He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。
- Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
- She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。
- Famine differs from chronic malnutrition.饥荒不同于慢性营养不良。
- Chronic poisoning may lead to death from inanition.慢性中毒也可能由虚弱导致死亡。
- He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
- He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。
- He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
- Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。
- A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
- A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。
- The foothills were looming ahead through the haze. 丘陵地带透过薄雾朦胧地出现在眼前。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- Then they looked up. Looming above them was Mount Proteome. 接着他们往上看，在其上隐约看到的是蛋白质组山。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 回顾与展望
- The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
- The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。
- She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
- His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。
- Finally, prepare an explanation about what led to your layoff.最后，要准备好一套说辞来解释你被解雇的原因。
- Workers were re-employed after the layoff.在暂时解雇不久后工人们又被再度雇用了。
- a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
- a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会