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  3. One puzzle of this somber economy is the existence of unfilled jobs in the midst of mass unemployment. You might think that with

One puzzle of this somber economy is the existence of unfilled jobs in the midst of mass unemployment. You might think that with

admin2012-06-10  51
问题     One puzzle of this somber economy is the existence of unfilled jobs in the midst of mass unemployment. You might think that with almost 14 million Americans unemployed—and nearly half those for more than six months—that companies could fill almost any opening quickly. Not so. Somehow, there’s a mismatch between idle workers and open jobs. Economists call this "structural unemployment.
    Let’s acknowledge two realities. First, though structural joblessness is important, the main cause of high unemployment remains the deep slump. In the recession, jobs dropped 20 percent in construction, 15 percent in manufacturing and 7 percent in retailing. Only a stronger economy can remedy this unemployment. Second, a big economy like ours always has some vacancies. People quit or get fired. Hiring procedures grind slowly. Some highly specialized jobs are inherently hard to fill: say, a transportation engineer fluent in both Chinese and English.
    The job mismatch hobbles recovery and bodes ill. The harder it is for workers to find jobs, the longer they stay unemployed—and this, in turn, worsens their prospects. " Long-term unemployment sends a negative signal to employers; What’s wrong with this person?" says Holzer. Some jobs lost in the recession and the associated skills won’t return.
    Theories abound as to what’s gone wrong. For skilled blue-collar jobs, high schools have de-emphasized vocational training, community colleges often aren’t well-connected to local job markets and union apprenticeship programs have withered, says Anthony Carnevale, director of Georgetown’s Center on Education and the Workforce. Another theory is that Americans are less willing to move to take jobs. The McKinsey study reports that, in the 1950s, one in five Americans moved every year; now it’s one in 10. " Work is more mobile than workers," says Camden.
    Companies traditionally provided much training, but that may also have changed. Loyalties have weakened. Companies are more willing to fire; workers are more willing to jump ship. Training may seem a poor investment because workers won’t stay long enough to earn a return. In the McKinsey survey, companies denied cutting training budgets. But Carnevale and others think the training has altered. Before,firms provided more basic training in business or technology skills; now, firms expect workers to come with these skills and focus training on firm-specific practices and systems.
    So it’s a Catch-22: You can’t get hired unless you have experience; but you can’t get experience unless you’re hired. With technology changing rapidly, workers need to know more, even as their skills-support systems weaken. There is no instant cure for today’s job mismatch, but it might ease if America’s largest companies were a little bolder. Surely many of them—enjoying strong profits—could make a small gamble that, by providing more training for workers, they might actually do themselves and the country some good.
According to the passage, the prime reason for mass unemployment is
选项 A、idleness of workers.
B、economic recession.
C、industry structure.
D、great job mismatch.
答案B
解析 细节题。通读文章可知，第二段中简要分析了高失业率的主要原因，其中第二句指出尽管职业错构影响很大，但失业的主要原因还是经济不景气，故B为答案。
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