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　　The deep downturn in the US economy gathered strength in February as another 651,000 workers lost their jobs.
美国日益加深的经济衰退导致失业率急剧攀升到了8.1%，这是过去25年来的最高水平。仅仅在2月份，美国就有65万1千人成为不断扩大的失业大军的最新成员。
It was the third straight month in which the jobless total rose by more than 600,000. Since the recession began in December 2007 over four million Americans have lost their jobs.
在过去的三个月中，每个月都有六十多万人加入失业的行列。自从2007年12月美国正式进入经济衰退以来，已经有400多万美国人失去了自己的工作。
The unemployment rate rose to 8.1 percent in February, the highest rate in over 25 years. Job losses in February were close to expectations, while the unemployment rate was above forecasts of 8 percent.
美国劳工部星期五报告说，全国的平均失业率在2月份达到25年来的最高峰8.1%。2月份新增加的失业人数跟经济学家的预期差不多，可是没有人想到失业率会超过8%。
New York Congressman¹ Maurice Hinchey called attention to the revised 688,000 job lost in December 2008. "That [revised] December decline is now the worst we've seen since October 1949," he said.
美国劳工部还把2008年12月的新增失业人数修改为68万1千人。这个数据引起来自纽约州的众议员毛利斯.欣奇的注意。他说：“12月经过修正的失业人数是1949年10月以来最糟糕的。”
Hinchey is a member of the Joint² Economic Committee. During a discussion of the grim jobs data, members divided along party lines on whether the economic stimulus³ plan of President Obama will turn the economy around. Elijah Cummings, a democrat⁴ from Baltimore, Maryland, is optimistic.
欣奇还是国会联合经济委员会的成员。在这个由参众两院共同组成的委员会就严酷的就业数据展开讨论时，民主共和两党议员面对奥巴马总统提出的经济刺激计划是否能扭转美国经济的问题各持己见。来自马里兰州巴尔的摩的民主党众议员伊利亚.卡明斯持乐观的态度。
"This [economic] situation changes from day-to-day, hour-to-hour, it is indeed a very difficult moving target," said Cummings. "But we will hit the target."
他说：“经济形势每天、每个小时都在变，这的确是一个很难瞄准的移动目标，但是我们一定会击中这个目标。”
Kevin Brady, a Republican congressman from east Texas, is convinced that more government spending is not the answer. "Unfortunately, the administration's solution to the problem posed by an excessive debt burden is to propose an avalanche⁵ of more deficit⁶ spending and higher federal debt," he said.
可是来自德克萨斯州的共和党众议员凯文.布莱迪却认为，像奥巴马总统那样增加政府开支并不能解决当前的经济问题。他说：“不幸的是，奥巴马政府解决问题的办法就是过份增加债务负担，这只能导致赤字开支暴涨，联邦债务激增。”
Analysts⁷ expect the jobless rate will continue to rise, perhaps reaching 10 percent of the labor⁸ force. The current recession is already among the deepest of the post-World War II period.
分析人士预期美国的失业率将继续上升，有可能达到10%。美国目前的经济衰退是二次大战以来最严重的。
The stock market, a barometer⁹ of business confidence, has plummeted¹⁰ 20 percent in the six weeks since President Obama took office. It is down 53 percent from its October 2007 record high, a move that has erased¹¹ several trillion dollars from America's household wealth.
美国股市作为商业信心的晴雨表，在奥巴马总统宣誓就职以来的六个星期中，下滑了20%。如果从2007年10月的最高峰算起，股市迄今为止已经狂泻了53%，导致美国家庭的数万亿美元财富在一年多的时间里化为乌有。