PBS高端访谈:没有学历的打工人的百态人生,你品到了吗?(1)

Well, the pandemic has made this a most unusual time in the labor¹ market. Millions of lost jobs are not yet filled.

疫情让劳动力市场进入了一个非常特殊的时期。数以百万的失业人员尚待就业。

And yet, still, there are reports of labor shortages in many sectors² and a large percentage of workers who say they are looking for a new job.

尽管如此，仍有报道称许多行业存在劳动力短缺问题，还有很大比例的工人表示他们正在寻找新工作。

For some without a bachelor's degree, job prospects³ were bleak⁴ even before the pandemic.

对于那些没有学历(学士学位)的人来说，即便在疫情之前就业前景就很黯淡。

Paul Solman looks at a program that is offering better opportunities. It's latest in our Work Shift series.

保罗·索尔曼正着手一个项目，这个项目能够为无学历人员提供更好的就业机会。本期视频是我们“工作轮班”系列的最新内容。

Adquena Faine's last job before the pandemic, driving for Uber and Lyft in Virginia.

艾德恩娜·费恩疫情前的最后一份工作是Uber和Lyft司机，在弗吉尼亚州开车。

I was driving so much, I would lay down and try to take a nap or go to sleep, and I still felt the vibrations⁵ of the car.

开车开得太久的时候我会躺下来，打个盹或者睡个觉，但我还能感觉到汽车在震动。

No time or money to finish college, barely able to feed her daughter and pay for a hotel room after foreclosure on their home. Food for herself?

没有时间也没有钱上大学，女儿也吃不饱，住酒店的钱也付不起，因为房子被没收了。自己找吃的？

Before I got on the road to drive, I would stop and forage⁶ in the woods or like on the side streets.

在我开车上路之前，我会在树林里或者小路上停下来找点儿吃的。

You were actually foraging⁷ for food at some point? I have never heard that before.

你真的有时会自己找吃的？之前没听你说过。

People will stop and ask, what are you doing? And I'm like, oh, nothing, because I don't want anybody to start coming to pick my food.

有人会停下来问“你在做什么？”我说，哦，没什么，因为我不想别人抢我的食物。

In Louisiana, Jennifer Burgess went straight from high school to dog training.

在路易斯安那州，詹妮弗·伯吉斯高中毕业后就直接去做了训狗师。

For 15 years, I have actually trained over 10,000 dogs.

15年了，我训练过1万多只狗。

And so how much money did you make there?

你做这个挣了多少钱？

On my best year ever, maybe 28.

最好的那一年能挣到大概28.

Twenty eight thousand dollars?

2万8千美元吗？

My best year ever.

是的，最好的那年。

Mariana Perez was 20 when she emigrated from Mexico in 2005, without a high school degree or even any English, spent nine years working in a North Carolina nail salon⁸.

玛丽安娜·佩雷斯2005年从墨西哥移民到美国时只有20岁，她没有高中学历，甚至连英语都不会，却在北卡罗来纳州的一家美甲沙龙工作了9年。

I used to work 60 to 70 hours a week.

以前我每周要工作60到70个小时。

Sixty to 70?

60到70？

Yes. I had no benefits. We don't have any vacation pay. So, if you don't work, you don't earn money.

是的，我没有提成。休假就没有工资，所以，不工作就没有钱。

On the plus side, however:

不过，也有好的一面：

I miss some of my clients. They were very, very nice people.

我想念我的一些客户，他们都是非常非常好的人。

I love working with dogs.

我喜欢每天和狗在一起。

But the pay?

工资怎么样？

I went from $6.10 an hour to $11.25 an hour over 15 years.

15年来，我的工资从每小时6.10美元涨到了每小时11.25美元。

Two problems have plagued the U.S. economy for decades now, income inequality and young folks not working at all. Low pay for those with just high school or less is an obvious explanation.

几十年来，有两个问题一直困扰着美国经济，一个是收入不平等，一个是年轻人不工作。对于那些只有高中或高中以下学历的人来说，工资低是主要原因。

Sixty percent of Americans in the work force today do not have bachelor's degrees.

今天60%的美国劳动力都没有大学学历(学士学位)。

But, asks economist⁹ Byron Auguste:

但是，经济学家拜伦·奥古斯特问道：

Why is there such a difference in earnings¹⁰ between people who are college graduates and people who are not in this country?

为什么在美国，大学毕业生和非大学毕业生之间的收入差距会有这么大？

It's simply not the case that not having a bachelor's degree means that you don't have skills to contribute.

没有大学学历并不是说你就没有能够做出贡献的技能。

Thirty million today have the skills, based on the work they're doing, for jobs that pay at least 50 percent more than the jobs they're in.

今天，有三千万有技能的人，基于他们所做的工作，他们的工资比他们所从事工作的正常水平要高出至少50%。

Meanwhile, employers are begging for employees, boasting $20 an hour, where once $15 was thought magnanimous. But $20 an hour is barely $40,000 a year.

同时，雇主们也在急招员工，吹嘘自己能够给到每小时20美元的工资，过去15美元的工资都被认为是很慷慨的。但如今20美元一小时的工资算下来一年也就挣4万美元。

These are the computers.

这些是电脑。

OK, time for one more player in this story, IBM, once the icon¹¹ of high tech in America.

好的，下面是这个故事的另一个参与者，IBM，曾经是美国高科技的象征。

These machines are things of gleaming, varicolored metal and numerous flashing lights.

这些机器闪闪发光，有着五颜六色的金属和无数闪烁的灯。

Selling and servicing huge computers, Big Blue and its big machines were attacked by little Apple with its mini Mac back in 1984.

IBM是一家销售和服务大型计算机的公司，1984年这个“蓝色巨人”和它的大型计算机遭到了小小的苹果公司开发的“mini Mac”的攻击。

IBM was worth 30-something times the value of Apple as a company back then. Today, Apple is worth 16 times as much as IBM.

当时IBM的市值是苹果的30多倍，而如今苹果的市值是IBM的16倍。

And yet IBM has survived by cutting costs drastically, including layoffs¹², changing its business, outsourcing, and it still employs 350,000 people worldwide.

不过，IBM通过大幅削减成本生存了下来，包括裁员、改变业务、外包，如今它在全球仍然有35万名员工。

Here in the U.S., however, it finds itself competing for talent witness the trendier Apples, Googles and start-ups. So, Kelli Jordan spearheads IBM's new collar initiative.

然而，在美国，苹果、谷歌和初创企业的竞争更加激烈。凯利·乔丹是IBM新项圈计划的先锋。

Back in 2016, we really started looking at how we could fill roles that we had just struggled to fill in other ways.

早在2016年，我们就开始考虑如何填补我们之前在其他领域努力填补的空缺，

Just saying you don't require a bachelor's degree brought in a whole new slate¹³ of candidates that we never would have uncovered.

只要写上“不需要大学学历”这一条就能换来一个我们永远不会发现的全新的应聘者名单。

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 sectors   

n.部门( sector的名词复数 )；领域；防御地区；扇形

参考例句：

• Berlin was divided into four sectors after the war. 战后柏林分成了4 个区。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Industry and agriculture are the two important sectors of the national economy. 工业和农业是国民经济的两个重要部门。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 prospects   

n.希望，前途(恒为复数)

参考例句：

• There is a mood of pessimism in the company about future job prospects. 公司中有一种对工作前景悲观的情绪。
• They are less sanguine about the company's long-term prospects. 他们对公司的远景不那么乐观。

4 bleak   

adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的

参考例句：

• They showed me into a bleak waiting room.他们引我来到一间阴冷的会客室。
• The company's prospects look pretty bleak.这家公司的前景异常暗淡。

5 vibrations   

n.摆动( vibration的名词复数 )；震动；感受；（偏离平衡位置的）一次性往复振动

参考例句：

• We could feel the vibrations from the trucks passing outside. 我们可以感到外面卡车经过时的颤动。
• I am drawn to that girl; I get good vibrations from her. 我被那女孩吸引住了，她使我产生良好的感觉。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 forage   

n.(牛马的)饲料，粮草；v.搜寻，翻寻

参考例句：

• They were forced to forage for clothing and fuel.他们不得不去寻找衣服和燃料。
• Now the nutritive value of the forage is reduced.此时牧草的营养价值也下降了。

7 foraging   

v.搜寻（食物），尤指动物觅（食）( forage的现在分词 )；（尤指用手）搜寻（东西）

参考例句：

• They eke out a precarious existence foraging in rubbish dumps. 他们靠在垃圾场捡垃圾维持着朝不保夕的生活。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The campers went foraging for wood to make a fire. 露营者去搜寻柴木点火。 来自辞典例句

8 salon   

n.[法]沙龙；客厅；营业性的高级服务室

参考例句：

• Do you go to the hairdresser or beauty salon more than twice a week?你每周去美容院或美容沙龙多过两次吗？
• You can hear a lot of dirt at a salon.你在沙龙上会听到很多流言蜚语。

9 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

10 earnings   

n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得

参考例句：

• That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
• Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。

11 icon   

n.偶像，崇拜的对象，画像

参考例句：

• They found an icon in the monastery.他们在修道院中发现了一个圣像。
• Click on this icon to align or justify text.点击这个图标使文本排齐。

12 layoffs   

临时解雇( layoff的名词复数 )； 停工，停止活动

参考例句：

• Textile companies announced 2000 fresh layoffs last week. 各纺织公司上周宣布再次裁员两千人。
• Stock prices broke when the firm suddenly announced layoffs. 当公司突然宣布裁员时，股票价格便大跌

13 slate   

n.板岩，石板，石片，石板色，候选人名单；adj.暗蓝灰色的，含板岩的；vt.用石板覆盖，痛打，提名，预订

参考例句：

• The nominating committee laid its slate before the board.提名委员会把候选人名单提交全体委员会讨论。
• What kind of job uses stained wood and slate? 什么工作会接触木头污浊和石板呢？