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  3. America’s great labor market slump continues to cast its pall over the economy, leaving one lonely group in particular shrouded

America’s great labor market slump continues to cast its pall over the economy, leaving one lonely group in particular shrouded

admin2014-09-05  5
问题     America’s great labor market slump continues to cast its pall over the economy, leaving one lonely group in particular shrouded in shadows. Over 6m Americans, more than 40% of all those unemployed, have now been out of work for more than six months. Most of these, 4. 5m, haven’t worked for a year or more. This crisis of long-term joblessness is unprecedented in the post-war period.
    Lacklustre growth is the main problem. The pace of new hiring crashed during the recession and has scarcely recovered since. Although America’s unemployment rate is down a percentage point from its peak, this is little cause for cheer.【C1】______Many of the latter have given up hope. For the first time in decades, jobless workers are more likely to drop out of the labor force(and cease to be counted as unemployed)than to get a job. Bit by bit, a large mass of American workers is losing touch with the labor market.
    One might expect unemployment to carry less stigma after a deep recession—bad times, rather than personal shortcoming, being the more likely reason for a sacking. Yet a worker’s lifetime earnings are hurt more by a job loss in a weak economy.【C2】______The unemployed increasingly face discrimination in the hiring queue, often enough that Barack Obama proposes to ban the practice. Such a rule might encourage employers not to hire at all, for fear of legal action.
    Still, there are some signs that the long-term jobless can be coaxed back into the working world.【C3】______The ranks of the unemployed are often replenished by those moving from outside the labor force—that is, from not looking for work at all—into active job seeking. The long-term unemployed pay close attention to the state of the job market and resume their job search in optimistic periods. A burst of optimism early this year, corresponding to a period when employment was growing by more than 200, 000 jobs a month, coincided with a surge of workers back into the labor force to seek work. This may have reversed in recent months. In July, just 10% of workers polled by Gallup said it was a good time to find a decent job, down from 17% in April. The horizon has only grown cloudier since then.
    Policymakers are slowly beginning to respond to the crisis.【C4】______Mr. Obama proposes to increase the program’s flexibility. Benefits could be used to supplement wages at businesses that cut hours rather than lay off workers, for instance. The president also seems fond of state-level programs like " Georgia Works" , which pay benefits to jobless workers engaged in training. Should Congress approve, such measures could light the path back to work for many jobless Americans.
    The Federal Reserve is also paying heed. At a speech in late August, Chairman Ben Bernanke warned that long-term unemployment could harm the economy’s long-run growth prospects, though since then he has done little to help.【C5】______
[A]Nothing would be so effective as a strong economy and a tight labor market. Despite growing interest in their troubles, that seems a distant prospect for those languishing on the edge of the working world.
[B]An experienced worker laid off when unemployment is at 9% faces a reduction in lifetime earnings nearly twice that of someone sacked when the rate is 5% , according to new work by Steven Davis and Till von Wachter.
[C]The unemployment rate in different sectors varies greatly. The department that suffers most is manufacturing and the fall in manufacturing in the past few years is a major factor behind growing wage inequality.
[D]Barack Obama’s proposed American Jobs Act would reauthorize for another year current emergency unemployment benefits, which help to support consumption among the jobless, reducing poverty and propping up demand.
[E]Workers are escaping unemployment more slowly than at any time since 1948. The long-term unemployed are struggling most; in the year to June, the newly jobless were three times more likely to find new work in a given month than the long-term unemployed.
[F]Compared with workers newly laid off, the long-term unemployed have stronger motivation to take part in train programs and go back to the labor force for fear of losing the right to enjoy unemployment insurance benefits.
[G]New research by economists Michael Elsby and Rob Valletta shows that movement in and out of the labor force is actually more fluid than has been previously assumed.
【C4】
选项
答案D
解析 第五段第一句话点明该段主旨。Policymakers are slowly beginning to respond tothe crisis．面对长期失业的危机，政策制定者开始采取措施。下文提到了奥巴马总统出台的一系列应对措施。因此很明显，横线处应该选择的正确答案是[D]。Barack Obama’s proposedAmerican Jobs Act would reauthorize for another year current emergency unemploymentbenefits，which help to support consumption among the jobless，reducing poverty andpropping up demand．“奥巴马提出的美国就业法案重申将现行的紧急失业救济金的发放再延长一年，以维持失业者的日常支出、减少贫困人口、提振内需。”
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