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  3. How many really suffer as a result of labor market problems? This is one of the most critical yet contentious social policy ques

How many really suffer as a result of labor market problems? This is one of the most critical yet contentious social policy ques

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问题     How many really suffer as a result of labor market problems? This is one of the most critical yet contentious social policy questions. In many ways,our so- cial statistics exaggerate the degree of hardship. Unemployment does not have the same dire consequences today as it did in the 1930’s when most of the unemployed were primary breadwinners, when income and earnings were usually much closer to the margin of subsistence, and when there were no countervailing social programs for those failing in the labor market. Increasing afflu- ence, the rise of families with more than one wage earner, the growing predominance of secondary earners among the unemployed, and improved social welfare protection have unquestionably mit- igated the consequences of joblessness. Earnings and income data also overstate the dimensions of hardship. Among the millions with hourly earnings at or below the minimum wage level, the over- whelming majority are from multiple-earner, relatively affluent families. Most of those counted by the poverty statistics are elderly or handicapped or have family responsibilities which keep them out of the labor force, so the poverty statistics are by no means an accurate indicator of labor market pathologies.
    Yet there are also many ways our social statistics underestimate the degree of labor-market-related hardship. The unemployment counts exclude the millions of fully employed workers whose wages are so low that their families re- main in poverty. Low wages and repeated or prolonged unemployment frequently interact to undermine the capacity for self-support. Since the number experiencing joblessness at some time during the year is several times the number unemployed in any month, those who suffer as a result of forced idleness can equal or exceed average annual unemployment, even though only a minority of the jobless in any month really suffer. For every person counted in the monthly unemployment tallies, there is another working part-time because of the inability to find full-time work, or else outside the labor force but wanting a job. Finally, income transfers in our country have always focused on the elderly, disabled, and dependent, neglecting the needs of the working poor, so that the dramatic expansion of cash and in-kind transfers does not necessarily mean that those failing in the labor market are adequately protected.
    As a result of such contradictory evidence, it is uncertain whether those suffering seriously as a result of thousands or the tens of millions, and, hence, whether high levels of joblessness can be tolerated or must be coun- tered by job creation and economic stimulus. There is only one area of agreement in this debate—that the existing poverty, employment, and earnings statistics are inadequate for one of their primary applications, measuring the consequences of labor market problems.
Which of the following is the principal topic of the passage?
选项 A、What causes labor market pathologies that result in suffering.
B、Why income measures are imprecise in measuring degrees of poverty.
C、Which of the currently used statistical procedures are the best for estimating the incidence of hardship that is due to unemployment.
D、Where the areas of agreement are among poverty, employment, and earnings figures.
E、How social statistics give an unclear picture of the degree of hardship caused by low wages and insufficient employment opportunities.
答案E
解析 主题题型：A．劳动市场问题的原因。未提。B．为什么用收入标准衡量贫困不准确。只在原文L27—33行提到，不是全文内容。C．现用的统计程序哪一种衡量失业引起的困苦最合适。据原文，没提起一种合适的方法。D．关于贫困、就业、收入这三个问题的意见一致处在哪里。无。E．社会统计如何对于低收入和失业问题给出一个不正确的评价。正确。原文第一段，高估；第二段，低估，都是unclear picture。
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