纽约时报 美11月就业人数仅新增21万人 失业率降至4.2%（在线收听）

    Employers recorded the year’s weakest hiring in November, adding only 210,000 jobs on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Labor Department said Friday.

    美国劳工部(Labor Department)上周五表示，11月份的就业人数为今年以来最低，经季节性因素调整后仅增加了21万人。

    Economists had expected the number to be above half a million for the second straight month.

    经济学家曾预计这一数字将连续第二个月增加超过50万。

    The shortfall was particularly stark given that the data was collected before the emergence of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, the latest turn in the pandemic.

    考虑到这些数据是在奥密克戎变种冠状病毒出现之前收集的，这是疫情的最新变化，因此就业不足尤其明显。

    There was good news in the report, however.

    然而，报告中也有好消息。

    A survey of households showed a big jump in total employment.

    一项对家庭的调查显示，总就业率大幅上升。

    The labor force grew by hundreds of thousands, and the unemployment rate fell to 4.2 percent from 4.6 percent.

    劳动力增加了几十万，失业率从4.6%下降到4.2%。

    The contradictory data presents President Biden and policymakers with new complications, particularly with Omicron’s potential impact yet to be established.

    这些矛盾的数据给拜登总统和政策制定者带来了新的麻烦，尤其是在奥密克戎的潜在影响尚未确定的情况下。

    The report also offers few clues to businesses about the months ahead.

    该报告也没有为企业提供关于未来几个月的线索。

    With inflation surging to its highest rate in decades, Federal Reserve officials are weighing whether to step up efforts to rein in prices.

    随着通胀率飙升至几十年来的最高水平，美联储官员正在权衡是否要加大力度控制物价。

    And the Biden administration is eager to point to an accelerating recovery as a validation of its policies — including the $1.9 trillion stimulus package signed in March, the American Rescue Plan.

    拜登政府急于把经济加速复苏作为其政策的验证，包括3月份签署的1.9万亿美元的刺激计划，即美国救援计划。

    But Mr. Biden has been forced to concede that many Americans do not feel that improvement and have grown more pessimistic about the economy and his handling of it.

    但拜登被迫承认，许多美国人并没有感受到这种改善，他们对经济以及他对经济的处理方式变得更加悲观。

    On Friday, he hailed the drop in the unemployment rate as a vindication of his administration’s policies — while acknowledging the mixed signals in the jobs report.

    周五，他称赞失业率的下降证明了政府的政策是正确的，但同时承认就业报告中发出了好坏参半的信号。

    “Our economy is markedly stronger than it was a year ago,” he declared.

    “我们的经济明显强于一年前，”他宣称。

    But he went on to say: “It’s not enough to know that we’re making progress.

    但他接着说:“仅仅知道我们正在取得进展是不够的。

    You need to see it and feel it in your own lives — around the kitchen table, in your checkbooks.”

    你需要在自己的生活中观察到它，感受到它——在餐桌旁，在支票簿上。”

    Economic indicators were already ambiguous.

    经济指标本来就不明确。

    Consumer confidence readings have been at a low ebb, but Americans have been on a spending spree, and investors seem unperturbed.

    消费者信心指数一直处于低潮，但美国人一直在疯狂消费，投资者似乎不为所动。

    Stocks declined on Friday but remain near record highs.

    周五股市下跌，但仍接近历史高位。

    The lackluster hiring number in the latest government report was a reminder of the uneven momentum in the labor market since the pandemic began nearly two years ago.

    最新的政府报告中就业人数的低迷提醒人们，自近两年前疫情开始以来，劳动力市场的发展势头不均衡。

    Job gains in businesses requiring face-to-face contact — like stores, restaurants, bars and hotels — were especially soft last month.

    上个月，需要面对面接触的商店、餐馆、酒吧和酒店等行业的就业增长尤其疲软。

    Retail employment dropped by 20,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis, while hiring in leisure and hospitality industries rose by 23,000, compared with a gain of 170,000 in October.

    经季节性调整后，零售业就业人数减少了2万人，而休闲和服务业就业人数增加了2.3万人，而10月份增加了17万人。

    Part of the puzzle in the data released on Friday arose because the Labor Department report is based on two surveys, one polling households and the other recording hiring among employers.

    周五公布的数据之所以令人费解，部分原因在于劳工部的报告基于两项调查，一项是家庭调查，另一项是雇主雇佣情况调查。

    For about the past half-year, the survey of households had been showing significantly weaker job growth than its sister survey — until last month, when it was much stronger.

    在过去大约半年的时间里，家庭调查显示的就业增长一直明显弱于其姊妹调查——直到上个月，该调查显示的就业增长要强劲得多。

    It showed overall employment, for example, growing by 1.1 million, seasonally adjusted.

    例如，该报告显示，经季节性因素调整后，整体就业人数增加了110万人。

    Economists generally put more trust in the employer survey, which has a much larger sample size.

    经济学家普遍更相信抽样规模大得多的雇主调查。

    So the recent pattern suggests that the household survey had been undercounting employment and, in effect, caught up in November.

    因此，最近的调查模式表明，家庭调查一直在低估就业，实际上在11月就业人数就赶上了。