美国有线新闻 CNN 美国首次申请失业救济人数接近百万

We start today with some not so good news about the U.S. economy. Initial jobless claims are up. What does that mean? Why does it matter? Also known as first time unemployment claims, this is a number of Americans who are asking for government assistance because they just lost their jobs in layoffs¹ or business cutbacks. The number is recorded weekly. And the U.S. government says last week 965,000 people filed for first time unemployment benefits.

我们今天首先来关注有关美国经济不太好的消息。首次申请失业救济人数上升。这意味着什么？为什么重要？首次申请失业救济也称被为首次失业金申请，指一些美国人请求政府援助，这些人刚刚因企业裁员或业务削减而失去工作。这一数字每周都有记录。美国政府表示，上周有96.5万人首次申请失业救济。

The week before that had been done by 784,000 Americans. It's not the highest level it's ever seen. When the shutdowns peaked last March and April, the government says more than 6 million people filed initial jobless claims during two back to back weeks. But when you consider that the number averaged around 200,000 weekly in 2019, you can see how last week's measurement that approached 1 million is considerably² higher. One prominent economist³ says p?art of the reason for the increase was the fact that a second stimulus⁴ package was passed in late December. That probably caused more people to apply for government benefits raising the jobless claims number. Another economic indicator⁵, the U.S. Stock Market has seen pretty steady growth since November so that's a good sign.

此前一周，申请人数为78.4万人。这并不是历史最高水平。政府表示，去年3月和4月停工停产最严重时，首次申请失业救济人数连续两周超过600万人。但如果考虑到2019年平均每周20万人左右的数字，你会发现上周接近100万人的数字已经相当高了。一位著名经济学家表示，首次申请失业救济人数增加的部分原因是去年12月底通过了第二项刺激方案。这可能导致更多的人申请政府救济，从而导致失业救济申请人数增加。现在来关注另一个经济指标，美国股市自去年11月以来一直保持稳定增长，这是一个好迹象。

1 layoffs   

临时解雇( layoff的名词复数 )； 停工，停止活动

参考例句：

• Textile companies announced 2000 fresh layoffs last week. 各纺织公司上周宣布再次裁员两千人。
• Stock prices broke when the firm suddenly announced layoffs. 当公司突然宣布裁员时，股票价格便大跌

2 considerably   

adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上

参考例句：

• The economic situation has changed considerably.经济形势已发生了相当大的变化。
• The gap has narrowed considerably.分歧大大缩小了。

3 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。

4 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。

5 indicator   

n.指标；指示物，指示者；指示器

参考例句：

• Gold prices are often seen as an indicator of inflation.黃金价格常常被看作是通货膨胀的指标。
• His left-hand indicator is flashing.他左手边的转向灯正在闪亮。