商业周刊:2050万美国人失业预示着更多的痛苦即将来临

Job Losses for 20.5 Million Americans Herald¹ More Pain to Come

2050万美国人失业预示着更多的痛苦即将来临

It took just one month for the labor² market in the world's largest economy to capsize. It will take longer for the damage to be fully³ realized.

美国——这个世界最大经济体的劳动力市场只用了一个月就倾覆了，要完全意识到这种损害则需要更长时间。

In the harshest downturn for American workers in history, employers cut an unprecedented⁴ 20.5 million jobs in April,

在美国工人有史以来最严重的经济衰退中，雇主在4月份前所未有地裁员2050万人，

tripling the unemployment rate to 14.7%, the highest since the Great Depression era of the 1930s.

使失业率翻了两番，达到14.7%，这是自20世纪30年代大萧条时期以来的最高值。

And it's only set to worsen in May, as cuts spread further into white-collar work.

而且，随着裁员进一步扩大到白领阶层，5月份的失业率只会进一步恶化。

"It's devastating," said Ryan Sweet, head of monetary⁵ policy research at Moody's Analytics.

穆迪分析公司（Moody's Analytics）货币政策研究主管瑞安·斯威特表示：

"There's someone behind each of these numbers. It's going to take years to recover from this.

“这具有极大的破坏性。每个数字后面都承载着某个人，要想从该事件中恢复过来需要几年的时间。

There's a case to be made that a lot of these are temporary layoffs⁶,

有一种说法是，其中很多都是临时性裁员。

so hopefully people can return to work quickly as we begin to reopen the economy -- but there's no guarantee in that."

因此，希望人们在我们开始重启经济之际，能够迅速重返工作岗位——但无法对此做出保证。”

The coronavirus pandemic brought the U.S. economy to a standstill after a record-long expansion,

新冠病毒大流行使美国经济在经历创纪录的长期扩张后，陷入停滞。

with April's losses erasing⁷ roughly all of the jobs added over the past decade.

4月份的失业人数，几乎抹去了过去10年新增的所有就业岗位。

It also laid bare just how precarious⁸ employment is for vast swaths of Americans, with an outsize impact on lower-paid workers as well as women and minorities.

它还揭示出广大美国人就业的不稳定性，对低收入工人以及女性和少数民族产生了巨大影响。

With a steep recession underway, the destruction of jobs heaps election-year pressure on President Donald Trump⁹ to restart the economy and show results by November.

随着经济衰退的加剧，就业岗位的减少给总统唐纳德·特朗普的选举年带来了压力，迫使他在11月前重启经济，还要展示其结果。

But with little containment¹⁰ of a contagious¹¹ disease that's killed 75,000 Americans and counting,

但是，由于对已导致7.5万美国人死亡的传染病的遏制力度很小，死亡人数还在统计中，

business is returning unevenly¹² and slowly if at all, and signs are mounting that many employers will be forced to make the cuts permanent.

企业的回报并不平衡，而且增长缓慢，越来越多的迹象表明，许多雇主将被迫永久性地削减开支。

1 herald   

vt.预示...的来临，预告，宣布，欢迎

参考例句：

• In England, the cuckoo is the herald of spring.在英国杜鹃鸟是报春的使者。
• Dawn is the herald of day.曙光是白昼的先驱。

2 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。

3 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

4 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

5 monetary   

adj.货币的，钱的；通货的；金融的；财政的

参考例句：

• The monetary system of some countries used to be based on gold.过去有些国家的货币制度是金本位制的。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

6 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

7 erasing   

v.擦掉( erase的现在分词 )；抹去；清除

参考例句：

• He was like a sponge, erasing the past, soaking up the future. 他象一块海绵，挤出过去，吸进未来。 来自辞典例句
• Suddenly, fear overtook longing, erasing memories. 突然，恐惧淹没了渴望，泯灭了回忆。 来自辞典例句

8 precarious   

adj.不安定的，靠不住的；根据不足的

参考例句：

• Our financial situation had become precarious.我们的财务状况已变得不稳定了。
• He earned a precarious living as an artist.作为一个艺术家，他过得是朝不保夕的生活。

9 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。

10 containment   

n.阻止，遏制；容量

参考例句：

• Your list might include such things as cost containment,quality,or customer satisfaction.你的清单上应列有诸如成本控制、产品质量、客户满意程度等内容。
• Insularity and self-containment,it is argued,go hand in hand.他们争论说，心胸狭窄和自我封闭是并存的。

11 contagious   

adj.传染性的，有感染力的

参考例句：

• It's a highly contagious infection.这种病极易传染。
• He's got a contagious laugh.他的笑富有感染力。

12 unevenly   

adv.不均匀的

参考例句：

• Fuel resources are very unevenly distributed. 燃料资源分布很不均匀。
• The cloth is dyed unevenly. 布染花了。