VOA常速英语2016--商业调查显示未来12个月内美国小型企业会面临招聘难窘境（在线收听）

商业调查显示未来12个月内美国小型企业会面临招聘难窘境

This factory, these stores are the kinds of small businesses that account for a significant part of America's economic activity.

这间工厂及这些商店等小型企业在美国经济活动中具有举足轻重的作用。

Confidence by the owners of these stores and factories is down as election year anxiety rises, according to a Bank of America's survey.

而据美国银行的一份调查显示随着对美国总统大选年的担忧日渐上升，这些商店店主及工厂厂主们的信心大幅下降。

“It is really important because small-business owners walk a very fine line around profitability and if you think about what some of the biggest expenses can be for a small-business owner, it can be taxes, it can be the minimum wage can have a huge impact, and health care costs.

“总统选举真的非常重要，因为小企业主的利润很小，而对于这样的企业而言大的开销是税收，还有对我们产生很大影响的最低工资标准，还有医保开支。

So when you think about those three items, it could actually make or break a business.”

当你考虑到这三项时，实际能够决定生意的成败。”

The call by both the leading Republican and Democratic presidential candidates to increase the minimum wage is especially worrying for small businesses, which are defined as companies having 100 employees or less.

共和党和民主党领跑的总统候选人对提高最低工资标准呼吁让不到100名员工的小企业主甚感担忧。

Steve Hong, who owns a garment factory in Manhattan, opposes the city's mandate to raise the minimum wage to 15 an hour by the end of 2018.

在曼哈顿拥有一家服装公司的史蒂夫·何恩反对2018年底这座城市强制将最低工资标准提高到每小时15美元的标准。

“I tried to give my workers a little bit of a raise every single year and most of my workers average about between 11 and 13 and that's probably, in this industry, one of the higher ones.

“每年我都尽量为员工涨点工资，大多数员工的平均工资在11至13美元之间，而这在我们这个行业算高的了。

But now with the new law of 15 an hour minimum, you're raising the minimum from 8.75 to 15 in three years, which is 80 percent.

但现在随着最低时薪15美元的新法规即将出台，这就表示你要在3年内将从8.75美元升至15美元，涨幅近80%。

I don't know how to sustain that. ”

我不知道怎样去维持。”

Nearly three-quarters of small-business owners also worry about rising health care costs.

近四分之三的小企业主同时还担心不断提高的医保费用。

In fact, the survey shows 22 percent are postponing hiring, citing uncertainty regarding the election and health care policy.

实际上，这项调查显示22%的小企业主由于选举及医保政策的不确定性推迟雇佣新员工。

Chief Economist Tara Sinclair of the employment search engine indeed.com says radically different policies from the left and right create challenges for business.

工作搜索引擎Indeed.com的首席经济学家塔拉·辛克莱尔表示左右两派截然不同的政策让这些小企业主面临难题。

“I do think that employers are really struggling to get a sense of how to make their hiring plans for the long term in the current political environment because they are hearing very different potential economic policies and that makes it more challenging than any specific policy.

“我认为现行的政治环境下，企业主们真的要在如何决定长期的雇佣计划间挣扎，因为他们听到的是截然不同的政策声音，这也使得经济政策的制定比其他特定政策更具挑战性。

It's not knowing what the policy will be.”

具体会出台怎样的政策，仍然不得而知。”

And with some small businesses still struggling to recovering from the recession, the stakes for the 26th presidential election loom a specially large.

“而且由于一些小型企业仍在努力从经济衰退中恢复，这就加大了第26届美国总统选举的风险。”