2005年NPR美国国家公共电台三月-Jobless with a College Degree: The Number

The US economy continues to recover from the tech bubble burst of 2000. But there're certainly many people still left behind. Long-term unemployment which is defined as being out of work for 27 weeks is at record levels. And within that group,the percentage who earned college degrees is also at historically high levels. Mark Zandi of economy.com. joins us in our studio. Thanks for being with us.

It's good to be with you.

And, just make some review with some of the statistics if you could about those long-term unemployment and college graduates.

Right. If you look at the unemployed². One in five of the unemployed have been unemployed for more than 27 weeks, that's an awfully³ long time and that's at record levels, even during the depth of previous recessions a decade ago, in the early 80s when unemployment was a lot higher. So this is unusually high. And also ,roughly one in five of the long-term unemployed have a college degree or higher.And that's also very unusual.Usually college grads do much better in the last few years if they have more difficulty.

And what's your analysis of what some of the reasons are that college graduates join in the ranks of the unemployed too?

One key reason is the sectors⁴ of the economy that got hit hard in the last several years.You mentioned technology, you know,financial services,well, the two parts of the economy that got hit very hard.They employ/ lots of very skilled highly-educated workers and many of them lost their jobs.And those industries have yet to make their way back.Employment's no longer falling in technology or financial services,but it's not yet risen to any significant degree.

Now I think a lot of people who are among the affected⁵, if we might put it this way, probably have a memory of someone telling them that they should get a college degree and they should probably study this new and enlarging field of computer technology because that way they'd always have a job.

And that's still very very good advice. Even throughout all these difficulties, folks with lesser⁶ education have struggled more and struggled significantly. I just give you another statistic¹.

Yeah.

The unemployment rate for folks with a college degree or more today is 2.4 percent. But those that have less than a high school diploma, haven't gratuaded from high school, their umployment rate is almost 8%. So that advice is still very valid,still very very important.It just, though, highlights the sort of breadth of the economic problems that we've struggled through over the past several years, that it, you know, one of the hallmarks of the last several years is that it touched almost every one regardless of educational attainment⁷.

Does outsourcing in the growth of a global economy have anything to do with it?

Yeah,I think that does play a role. We are now competing on a global stage. Our competitors are increasingly producing goods and services that embody⁸ higher skilled and highly educated workers in there for the competition. For our own highly skilled and educated workers, and what that means is we got to continue to educate our grade,our skills and for many of us,going to school once isn't enough, we may have to go back.

But what do you do about the fact there are still people in other nations,some are gonna refer to them as employment venues,who can do the same work for at least at the moment for a lot less?

Well,that is.That's a weight on our economy.Certainly,that's one reason why the job market here has taken so long to dig itself out from the very deep hole that it got itself in. And Fortunately,the folks that are working overseas are starting to earn better incomes and starting to demand their own goods and services and some of those things or things that we produce.In fact, if you look at recent export data.It's been quite strong.Export growth is in the double digits⁹.And that means that we're doing something right.We're being to be able to sell our wares¹⁰ overseas to those same folks that may be perhaps taking some of the jobs from people here.

Let me put you in the position of the guy who says to Benjamin in the graduate plastics?What would you whisper to a 19-year-old these days?

First say, lighting¹¹ up a little bit.I think 19-year-olds are awfully serious these days, please comparative.When I was 19 year old and, you konw, I think we lose something.But also I say that get as much of education as you can, as quickly as you can.That will serve you very well throughout your working life.And then be prepared to have to go back,go get another degree,change your occupation,learn another skill.Just be prepared for the possibility that what you are learning today at 19 may not be what you are doing when you are 49.

You may have to study something else when you met...

Yeah,you know what, there's lot worse things in lines than that,right, I mean. I'd love to go back to school.To tell you the truth, so,if I have the means to do it.And hopefully,our policy makers¹² will recognize the need for all of us to do that and make it a little bit easier for us to do that.

Mark Zandi ,an economist¹³ to the economy.com.Thanks very much.

It was a pleasure.

1 statistic   

n.统计量；adj.统计的，统计学的

参考例句：

• Official statistics show real wages declining by 24%.官方统计数字表明实际工资下降了24%。
• There are no reliable statistics for the number of deaths in the battle.关于阵亡人数没有可靠的统计数字。

2 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。

3 awfully   

adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地

参考例句：

• Agriculture was awfully neglected in the past.过去农业遭到严重忽视。
• I've been feeling awfully bad about it.对这我一直感到很难受。

4 sectors   

n.部门( sector的名词复数 )；领域；防御地区；扇形

参考例句：

• Berlin was divided into four sectors after the war. 战后柏林分成了4 个区。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Industry and agriculture are the two important sectors of the national economy. 工业和农业是国民经济的两个重要部门。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

5 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• 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。

6 lesser   

adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地

参考例句：

• Kept some of the lesser players out.不让那些次要的球员参加联赛。
• She has also been affected,but to a lesser degree.她也受到波及，但程度较轻。

7 attainment   

n.达到，到达；［常pl.］成就，造诣

参考例句：

• We congratulated her upon her attainment to so great an age.我们祝贺她高寿。
• The attainment of the success is not easy.成功的取得并不容易。

8 embody   

vt.具体表达，使具体化；包含，收录

参考例句：

• The latest locomotives embody many new features. 这些最新的机车具有许多新的特色。
• Hemingway's characters plainly embody his own values and view of life.海明威笔下的角色明确反映出他自己的价值观与人生观。

9 digits   

n.数字( digit的名词复数 )；手指，足趾

参考例句：

• The number 1000 contains four digits. 1000是四位数。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The number 410 contains three digits. 数字 410 中包括三个数目字。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

10 wares   

n. 货物, 商品

参考例句：

• They sold their wares at half-price. 他们的货品是半价出售的。
• The peddler was crying up his wares. 小贩极力夸耀自己的货物。

11 lighting   

n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光

参考例句：

• The gas lamp gradually lost ground to electric lighting.煤气灯逐渐为电灯所代替。
• The lighting in that restaurant is soft and romantic.那个餐馆照明柔和而且浪漫。

12 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• 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。