VOA标准英语2013--美国增加了14.8万岗 位,失业率降至7.2%

 

US Adds 148K Jobs, Unemployment Falls to 7.2 Percent 美国增加了14.8万岗 位,失业率降至7.2%

U.S. businesses added a modest 148,000 jobs in September, far short of  the 180,000 analysts¹ were expecting.  Still, job gains were enough to  lower the unemployment rate to 7.2 percent, the lowest in nearly five  years.  But, the first jobs report since the government shutdown  suggests the U.S. economy may be losing steam.

美国企业在9月增加148000个工作岗位,远低于分析师预计的180000。不过,就业增 长已降低失业率至7.2%,为近五年来最低的。但是,第一个就业报告由于政府关闭 表明美国经济可能会失去动力。

Concerns about the tepid² U.S. recovery may be hurting the job market.

And the political strife³ in Washington that led to the first government  shutdown in 17 years didn’t help, says economist⁴ Gus Faucher at PNC  Financial Services.

"So they've been reluctant to hire, and also I think you have concerns  about the health care law that might be weighing on hiring as well,"  said Faucher.

Despite the smaller than expected job gains in September, fewer  Americans filed for unemployment benefits, helping⁵ to bring the nation ’s unemployment rate to its lowest level in nearly five years.

Stocks rose on Wall Street after the release of the government report.

Economist Michael Strain at the conservative American Enterprise  Institute says that’s because the modest job growth means the U.S.  central bank will be less likely to scale back its bond purchases.

“The likelihood of the Fed tapering⁶ in 2013 is pretty close to zero in  my opinion," said Strain.

The Fed has been buying $85 billion in government bonds and securities  every month to keep interest rates low and encourage consumers and  businesses to spend.  Strain doesn’t see the U.S. economy recovering  fast enough for the Federal Reserve to change course this year.

He acknowledges the Congressional bickering⁷ in Washington has hurt the  U.S. economy, but he says it has nothing to do with the job slowdown in  September.

“The survey week for the data was the middle of September which was  before the shutdown and the debt ceiling debate really heated up. So if  we’re going to see anything related to the shutdown or the debt  ceiling, it would probably be in October’s numbers," said Strain.

On the bright side, construction jobs rose by 20,000 suggesting the  housing market continues to rebound⁸.   And government increased hiring  by roughly 22,000 jobs last month.

Analysts expect more volatility⁹ in the job numbers when October’s  employment report comes out -  just a little more than two weeks from  now.

1 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

2 tepid   

adj.微温的，温热的，不太热心的

参考例句：

• She bent her mouth to the tap and drank the tepid water.她把嘴伸到水龙头底下去喝那微温的水。
• Her feet firmly planted on the tepid rough brick of the floor.她一双脚稳固地立在微温而粗糙的砖地上。

3 strife   

n.争吵，冲突，倾轧，竞争

参考例句：

• We do not intend to be drawn into the internal strife.我们不想卷入内乱之中。
• Money is a major cause of strife in many marriages.金钱是造成很多婚姻不和的一个主要原因。

4 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。

5 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

6 tapering   

adj.尖端细的

参考例句：

• Interest in the scandal seems to be tapering off. 人们对那件丑闻的兴趣似乎越来越小了。
• Nonproductive expenditures keep tapering down. 非生产性开支一直在下降。

7 bickering   

v.争吵( bicker的现在分词 )；口角；（水等）作潺潺声；闪烁

参考例句：

• The children are always bickering about something or other. 孩子们有事没事总是在争吵。
• The two children were always bickering with each other over small matters. 这两个孩子总是为些小事斗嘴。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

8 rebound   

v.弹回；n.弹回，跳回

参考例句：

• The vibrations accompanying the rebound are the earth quake.伴随这种回弹的振动就是地震。
• Our evil example will rebound upon ourselves.我们的坏榜样会回到我们自己头上的。

9 volatility   

n.挥发性，挥发度，轻快，（性格）反复无常

参考例句：

• That was one reason why volatility was so low last year.这也是去年波动性如此低的原因之一。
• Yet because volatility remained low for so long,disaster myopia prevailed.然而，由于相当长的时间里波动性小，灾难短视就获胜了。