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  3. Britain’s flexible labour market was a boon during the economic slump, helping keep joblessness down and then, when the recovery

Britain’s flexible labour market was a boon during the economic slump, helping keep joblessness down and then, when the recovery

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问题    Britain’s flexible labour market was a boon during the economic slump, helping keep joblessness down and then, when the recovery began, allowing employment to rise. Yet one of its bendier bits is causing politicians to fret. Ed Miliband, the leader of the Labour Party, has promised a crackdown on "zero-hours contracts" if he wins the next election. The government has launched a consultation.
   Zero-hours contracts allow firms to employ workers for as few or as many hours as they need, with no prior notice. In theory, at least, people can refuse work. Fully 1.4m jobs were based on these contracts in January 2014, according to a snapshot taken by the Office for National Statistics. That is just 4% of the total, but the share rises to a quarter in the hospitality business.
   The contracts are useful for firms with erratic patterns of demand, such as hotels and restaurants. They have also helped firms to expand during the recovery—allowing them to test new business lines before hiring permanent staff, who would be more costly to make redundant if things went wrong.
   Flexibility suits some workers, too. According to one survey, 47% of those employed on zero-hours contracts were content to have no minimum contracted hours. Many of these workers are in full-time education. The ability to turn down work is important to students, who want to revise (or sit in the sun) at this time of year. Pensioners keen for a little extra income can often live with the uncertainty of not having guaranteed hours.
   Yet that leaves more than a quarter of workers on zero-hours contracts who say they are unhappy with their conditions. Some of this is cyclical. During recessions, a dearth of permanent positions forces people into jobs with no contracted hours even if they do not want them (the government has just said that unemployed people who refuse to accept zero-hours contracts could be cut off from benefits). Underemployment is particularly prevalent among these workers, 35% of whom would like more hours compared with 12% in other jobs. As the economy recovers, many should be able to renegotiate their contracts or find permanent jobs.
   But the recovery will not cause unwanted zero-hours contracts to disappear. Some workers will never have much negotiating power: they are constrained by geography, family commitments and lack of competition for their skills among a small number of big employers. Zero-hours contracts make it easier for employers to abuse their labour-market power. Some use them to avoid statutory obligations such as sick and maternity pay. Workers are penalised for not being available when requested. And some contracts contain exclusivity clauses which prevent workers from taking additional jobs. These can harm other employers as well as workers, and actually reduce labour market flexibility. That, at least, is worth doing away with.
"Zero-hours contract" would be helpful for some firms in that
选项 A、working hours for works should be agreed on
B、people can refuse work practically
C、it would be less costly to cut jobs than hire permanent staff
D、it would cut cost to scale up the company
答案C
解析 事实细节题。根据定位词定位到文章的第二段和第三段，其中第三段的第二句可以体现题目的内容，即They have also helped firms to expand during the recovery--allowing them to test new business lines before hiring permanent staff,who would be more costly to make redundant if things went wrong．(它们还有助于公司在经济复苏时扩大规模，其方式是在雇用同定员工前测试应聘者的业务水平。因为一旦雇用固定员工后，如果出现问题，裁员的代价会更高。)而与这个信息相对应的选项C项it would be less costly to cut jobs than hire permanent staff，“缩减岗位比聘用固定员工成本低”所以C项为正确选项。
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