纽约时报 亚马逊将斥资7亿美元 对员工进行再培训 (2)（在线收听）

And the fear that robots are taking jobs, and that automation will lead to mass unemployment, has grabbed the popular imagination.

机器人会抢走人类的工作，自动化将带来大规模失业这种担忧吸引了大众的注意力。

Magazine covers warn of a robot apocalypse.

杂志封面警告称，机器人末日即将到来。

Andrew Yang, a former tech entrepreneur, is running for president

前科技企业家杨念祖也将提供全民（基本）收入，

partly on a platform of offering a universal income to offset jobs lost to automation.

弥补自动化造成的失业问题纳入了自己的总统竞选纲领。

The McKinsey Global Institute predicts that up to one-third of the American work force

据麦肯锡全球研究所估计，到2030年，三分之一的美国人

will have to switch to new occupations by 2030.

都不得不另谋职业。

The prevailing view among economists and technologists is that for the next few years,

经济学家和技术专家们普遍认为，未来几年，

digital technology, from clever software to warehouse robots, will mainly change jobs rather than destroy them.

数字技术，从智能软件到仓库机器人的一切数字技术，的主要作用仍然是改变而非吞噬人类的就业机会。

Tasks become automated, so people spend less time on routine work.

实现自动化作业以后，人们就不用花那么多时间在常规操作上了。

So far, there is little evidence of widespread displacement.

但至今鲜有证据表明自动化造成了广泛的机器取代人工的问题。

Amazon and other companies have hired hundreds of thousands of workers for their warehouses.

亚马逊等企业雇佣了数十万的仓库员工。

Manufacturers have added jobs after decades of cuts.

几十年下来，一直在裁员的制造业反而创造了更多的就业机会。

The unemployment rate is near a 50-year low, and companies are digging deep into the labor market to find workers —

失业率也已经跌到了50年来的最低水平，企业为了雇佣到员工不得不深入劳动力市场挖掘——

easing education requirements, waiving drug tests and hiring people with criminal records.

他们不仅放宽了教育要求，免除了毒品测试，还会雇佣有过犯罪记录的人。

Many economists fret that there has not been enough automation.

然而，也有许多经济学家担心目前的自动化水平并不够高。

Productivity — the amount of value that employees create, on average, in an hour of work — has been rising slowly.

生产率——员工平均每小时创造的价值——一直在缓慢提高。

That has helped drag down both economic growth and wages.

但生产率的提高会拉低经济增长和工资水平。

When workers aren’t more productive, it is harder for companies to pay them more.

因为员工工作效率没有提高，公司就很难给他们加薪。

Amazon’s announcement on Thursday could be a sign that the strong labor market

亚马逊周四的声明或许暗示了强劲的劳动力市场

is finally pushing companies to make investments in both workers and technology to increase productivity.

终于推动企业人力投资和技术投资两手抓，藉此提高企业生产率。

Big companies, including Walmart and AT&T, have announced their own training program(s) in recent years.

近年来，沃尔玛和AT&T等大企业纷纷宣布了自己的培训计划。

Companies are also raising wages — last year, Amazon committed to paying a minimum wage of $15 per hour —

各大企业还纷纷上涨了员工的工资——去年，亚马逊就承诺将最低时薪标准提高到15美元——

giving them more of an incentive to ensure that those workers are productive.

这样一来，他们就更有动力确保这些员工输出较高的工作效率。

J. W. Mason, a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, a progressive think tank, said

进步智库罗斯福研究所的J·W·梅森说道：

"A tight labor market really enables workers to be able to demand more,

“劳动力市场紧俏确实有助于工人们提高自己的身价，

When they have to pay higher wages, when they have to struggle to find workers,

企业不得不支付更高的工资，不得不努力寻找员工的时候，

then they take the steps they need to make sure those workers are worth the money.”

他们就会采取措施，确保那些员工的工作成果与那些工资相匹配。”

Ardine Williams, Amazon’s vice president of people operations,

亚马逊人力运营副总裁阿迪娜·威廉姆斯称，

said the company had more than 20,000 open positions in the United States.

该公司在美国有超过2万个空缺职位。

In November, Amazon selected Northern Virginia as the site of a second headquarters,

去年11月，亚马逊选中了弗吉尼亚州北部作为自己的第二个总部所在地，

after company executives said they needed to look beyond Seattle, its longtime home, to fill its need for talent.

因为该公司的高层表示，要满足该公司的人才需求，他们就需要将目光放到公司一直以来的大本营——西雅图以外的地方。