2022年11月二笔真题-英译汉第一篇

The labor force is the total number of people (aged sixteen and older employed.The unemployment rate is the percentage of the labor force unemployed but lacking for work. The unemployment rate is a fungible item.Previously,the government gauged unemployment by the number of people who field unemployment claims in a given month.However,because many people who are or become unemployed by the technical definition--that is,they are looking for work--don't qualify for unemployment benefits,the result was a serious undercounting of the unemployed.Now the United States relies on the monthly Current Population Survey from the Commerce Department,which provides a more comprehensive set of numbers based on household polls.

Note that to be officially unemployed,a worker must be seeking employment.People without jobs who aren't looking for work because they don't think any exists have,in effect,dropped out of the labor force and become discouraged workers(丧志工人).The labor force participation LFP rate can be revealing.It is the percentage of the total working-age population that is in the labor force.

In other words,the LFP rate is the relationship between who is eligible to work and who actually is working.Broken down demographically,variations in the LFP rate may offer clues to stories about social trends.As of the mid 1990s,the entry of women into the labor force in large numbers was probably the most significant economic shift of the post-World War ll period.But in the latter part of the decade,participation by women leveled off and dropped in some sectors.Why this occurred is no clear;a natural leveling off does no seem to account for the change.More research,particularly into both women and men's changing relationships to work,is needed.Interested reporters should find and bond with social scientists who study the workplace.

Economists talk about different types of unemployment frictional,structural,and cyclical.The frictional unemployment are people who haven't had time to find a job yet because they are new to the labor force or are between jobs.Structural unemployment is a result of deep changes in the economy.Technological change may make some occupations obsolete When people began driving cars instead of horses and buggies,a blacksmith's skills were no longer necessary.The process by which jobs evolve and fade away as the skills they use become obsolete is called churning.Structural unemployment may also result from changes in international markets as lower-paid foreign labor force becomes available to do work that previously went to higher-paid domestic workers.In the last two decades workers in many important American industries,such as steel and textiles,have lost jobs to lower-paid workers in developing countries.