英伦广角 2009-08-16 失业青年

Although unemployment is very serious soon, which is why we're addressing it, with the ideas and the measures that we are. It would be much much worse if we were not taking the combined action that we as a government and the bank of England have been taking.

Lord Mandelson can argue all he likes that these jobless figures would have been worse if not for some of the stimulus¹ measures that the government is taking. The fact remains² that 2000 people who have lost their jobs everyday during the last year while youth unemployment that’s down to 938,000.

People between the ages of 16 and 24 now account for full 38% of those unemployed³ and that's gonna have searing repercussions⁴ across the whole society as the Order Commission warned earlier this week. The other thing worth noting about these jobless figures is that the disparity between the claimant count by those people who are signing on for job seekers' allowance, and the ILO measure which is a broader measure of those people who are without work but not necessarily claiming benefits is continuing. Now the government is looking at this already, and there are some suggestions that one may be the case. One theory is that people who've lost their jobs are simply depending on their partners rather than signing on for benefits themselves.

Now there are a couple of rays of hope. First of all, we've had earnings⁵ figures out today. Earnings figures in the 3 months to June were up to 2.5% and that's improvement on the previous situation, potentially that's good news for consumer spending. However it should be borne out that's within the private sector⁶ which is accounting⁷ for 80% of the workforce⁸ earnings are running rising by some 2.1%. The majority of that increase is in the public sector which again doesn't bode⁹ well for the government’s attempts to ease back on public spending.

 

1 stimulus   

n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物

参考例句：

• Regard each failure as a stimulus to further efforts.把每次失利看成对进一步努力的激励。
• Light is a stimulus to growth in plants.光是促进植物生长的一个因素。

2 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

3 unemployed   

adj.失业的，没有工作的；未动用的，闲置的

参考例句：

• There are now over four million unemployed workers in this country.这个国家现有四百万失业人员。
• The unemployed hunger for jobs.失业者渴望得到工作。

4 repercussions   

n.后果，反响( repercussion的名词复数 )；余波

参考例句：

• The collapse of the company will have repercussions for the whole industry. 这家公司的垮台将会给整个行业造成间接的负面影响。
• Human acts have repercussions far beyond the frontiers of the human world. 人类行为所产生的影响远远超出人类世界的范围。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 earnings   

n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得

参考例句：

• That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
• Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。

6 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

7 accounting   

n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表

参考例句：

• A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
• There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。

8 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• 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。

9 bode   

v.预示

参考例句：

• These figures do not bode well for the company's future.这些数字显示出公司的前景不妙。
• His careful habits bode well for his future.他那认真的习惯预示著他会有好的前途。