美国国家公共电台 NPR U.S. Economy Added 225,000 Jobs In January; Unemployment Rate

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

America's jobs engine accelerated last month. The Labor¹ Department says U.S. employers added 225,000 jobs in January. That is more than forecasters were expecting. The unemployment rate inched up a bit to 3.6%, but that is still close to a half-century low. NPR's Scott Horsley is with us now to pass the numbers. Hi, Scott.

SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE²: Good morning, Rachel.

MARTIN: So forecasters were expecting more modest gains in January, somewhere around 160,000. So this is somewhat of a pleasant surprise. What happened?

HORSLEY: One big bright spot was in the construction industry. We added 44,000 construction jobs in January. That's more than triple the monthly average we saw last year. Some of that is due to warmer-than-usual weather in January. So people who would have gotten hired later in the spring just got jobs earlier. So - but there's also signs of a real increase in homebuilding. That's thanks in part to lower interest rates. About half the construction jobs we added in January were on the residential³ side. And then we just saw a lot of hiring in things like health care, education and hospitality, which have been adding jobs month after month for a while now.

MARTIN: Any weak spots?

HORSLEY: Manufacturing continues to see some challenges. Factories were in a slump⁴ for about five months at the end of 2019, thanks in part to lower global demand for manufactured goods and trade tensions. Those trade tensions have eased a little bit. And we got a report earlier in the week suggesting a modest rebound⁵ in factory activity, but that didn't translate to factory jobs in January. Factories shed 12,000 jobs last month, and that's before we see any fallout from the coronavirus outbreak.

MARTIN: Right.

HORSLEY: Retail⁶ is also a weak spot as it has been. Eight thousand retail jobs were cut last month. You know, Macy's just announced another round of store closings this week. It's not that consumers aren't spending money; they are, but they're not necessarily spending it at the shopping mall.

MARTIN: Right.

HORSLEY: The plus side is that they are spending in online stores, and that means more jobs in warehouses⁷ and in transportation - picking up and packing up and delivering all those boxes. And we saw gains there of 28,000 jobs.

MARTIN: What about wages? Is the good job market affecting paychecks?

HORSLEY: We saw a little acceleration⁸ in wage gains in January. Over the last twelve months, wages - average wages are up 3.1%. That's up from 2.9% in December. And it is enough to keep consumers ahead of inflation. But it's still not as strong as you might expect, given the really low unemployment numbers we've seen. It could be there's more slack in the job market than the unemployment numbers would indicate. We continue to pull more people off the sidelines. The number of people in the labor force ticked up in January. That's good news because it means employers are finding the workers they need to keep the expansion going, but it does kind of keep a lid on wage hikes.

MARTIN: So the Labor Department also announced updated numbers, something - they updated some of their old numbers this month. Can you explain what those numbers are and why this is important to note?

HORSLEY: This is something the Labor Department does every year. They go back and update the employment figures using more complete information, and usually it doesn't make a big difference. This year, though, the revision is larger than normal. The department says about a half million fewer jobs were added between the spring of 2018 and the spring of 2019 than initially⁹ reported.

Now, it's still a real strong job market, but it does mean the jobs numbers that President Trump¹⁰ boasted about in his State of the Union speech this week need a little update. It turns out that in the first 36 months under President Trump, the U.S. economy added 6.6 million jobs. For comparison, in the previous 36 months, the U.S. economy added 8.1 million jobs.

MARTIN: All right. NPR's chief economics correspondent Scott Horsley for us this morning. Thank you, Scott.

HORSLEY: You're welcome.

1 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。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 residential   

adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的

参考例句：

• The mayor inspected the residential section of the city.市长视察了该市的住宅区。
• The residential blocks were integrated with the rest of the college.住宿区与学院其他部分结合在了一起。

4 slump   

n.暴跌，意气消沉，（土地）下沉；vi.猛然掉落，坍塌，大幅度下跌

参考例句：

• She is in a slump in her career.她处在事业的低谷。
• Economists are forecasting a slump.经济学家们预言将发生经济衰退。

5 rebound   

v.弹回；n.弹回，跳回

参考例句：

• The vibrations accompanying the rebound are the earth quake.伴随这种回弹的振动就是地震。
• Our evil example will rebound upon ourselves.我们的坏榜样会回到我们自己头上的。

6 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。

7 warehouses   

仓库，货栈( warehouse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The whisky was taken to bonded warehouses at Port Dundee. 威士忌酒已送到邓迪港的保稅仓库。
• Row upon row of newly built warehouses line the waterfront. 江岸新建的仓库鳞次栉比。

8 acceleration   

n.加速，加速度

参考例句：

• All spacemen must be able to bear acceleration.所有太空人都应能承受加速度。
• He has also called for an acceleration of political reforms.他同时呼吁加快政治改革的步伐。

9 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

10 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。