VOA标准英语2013--US Job Gains Again Surpass Outlook in June

 

US Job Gains Again Surpass Outlook in June

The retail¹ and hospitality industry saw the biggest job gains last month, followed by health care and professional services. But while the pace of job growth has been steady - economic blogger Chris Martenson says many of the new jobs involve part time work.

Martenson runs Peakprosperity.com. He spoke² to VOA via Skype.

“Honestly, I want to see the part-time numbers falling, I want to see hours per week climbing, I want to see average hourly, weekly earnings³ climbing much faster than they currently are for me to say - yeah, this is good,” he said.

Despite better than expected job numbers, the nation’s unemployment rate remained unchanged at 7.6 percent as more Americans resumed their job search. Martenson said stubbornly high unemployment means the U.S. Federal Reserve’s policy of Quantitative⁴ Easing is likely to stay - at least for now.

“The unemployment rate from the household data - that didn’t change. So guess what? QE [efforts to stimulate⁵ the economy] gets to continue, because the Fed has linked cessation of QE to change in this [unemployment] number," said Martenson.

The Federal Reserve has been buying $85 billion in Treasury⁶ bonds and mortgage-backed securities every month in an effort to keep long term interest rates low. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke says the central bank could start reducing its purchases as the jobless rate declines.

Some say that could happen sooner rather than later.

On Skype, finance expert James Blake said that job growth is likely to pick up in the second half of the year.

“I think there’s a lot of positive signs in the economy going forward. Will it become robust⁷? Not in the near term, but I think some steady moderate growth we will see,” said Blake.

Many businesses remain cautious. The report shows further job losses in manufacturing and government. And despite a steadily⁸ improving job market, the Labor⁹ Department says 11.8 million Americans are still unemployed¹⁰ - virtually unchanged since February.

1 retail   

v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格

参考例句：

• In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
• These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。

2 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 earnings   

n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得

参考例句：

• That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
• Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。

4 quantitative   

adj.数量的，定量的

参考例句：

• He said it was only a quantitative difference.他说这仅仅是数量上的差别。
• We need to do some quantitative analysis of the drugs.我们对药物要进行定量分析。

5 stimulate   

vt.刺激，使兴奋；激励，使…振奋

参考例句：

• Your encouragement will stimulate me to further efforts.你的鼓励会激发我进一步努力。
• Success will stimulate the people for fresh efforts.成功能鼓舞人们去作新的努力。

6 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

7 robust   

adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的

参考例句：

• She is too tall and robust.她个子太高，身体太壮。
• China wants to keep growth robust to reduce poverty and avoid job losses,AP commented.美联社评论道，中国希望保持经济强势增长，以减少贫困和失业状况。

8 steadily   

adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地

参考例句：

• The scope of man's use of natural resources will steadily grow.人类利用自然资源的广度将日益扩大。
• Our educational reform was steadily led onto the correct path.我们的教学改革慢慢上轨道了。

9 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

10 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。