VOA慢速英语20060418b

AGRICULTURE REPORT - How Farm Pay Compares to Industrial Pay in AmericaBy Mario Ritter

Broadcast: Tuesday, April 18, 2006

This is Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

A listener in China asks about the earnings¹ of farmers in the United States. Kevin Wan² from Sichuan would also like to know how pay for farmers compares with that of industrial workers.

The farm economy of the United States has changed a lot in the last seventy years. In the nineteen thirties, twenty-five percent of the nation's population lived on farms. Today less than one percent of Americans do.

Farm incomes have changed over the years too. For example, in nineteen thirty-three, people living and working on farms had much less money to spend than other Americans. At that time, farm families had about one-third the income of non-farmers after all necessary expenses had been paid. By the late nineteen seventies, however, that difference had almost disappeared.


Farm worker in a bean field

In two thousand four, farmers had their best year ever. The United States Department of Agriculture says the average farm family earned about eighty-one thousand dollars. That is more than the average American family, which earned about sixty thousand dollars.

Yet these numbers do not completely explain the situation for all farmers. Those who have small farms often take other jobs to earn extra income. And farm earnings for large farms grew faster than for small ones.

The Department of Labor³ measures the pay of industrial workers differently. It measures the average hourly and weekly pay for industrial workers. This is because factory workers are generally paid by the hour unlike farmers who earn income from their farm businesses.

The Bureau⁴ of Labor Statistics⁵ says the average hourly pay for all private industrial workers is about sixteen dollars.

The B.L.S. says average weekly pay for all industrial workers is about five hundred fifty dollars. But that is an average. Workers can earn as much as twice the average or as little as half of it depending on the industry in which they work.

Industrial workers are about twenty-three percent of the labor force. But that number has been decreasing. Most Americans have jobs that provide services. Professional, technical and other services employ about seventy-six percent of the labor force.

This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at www.unsv.com. This is Shep O'Neal.

1 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%。

2 wan   

(wide area network)广域网

参考例句：

• The shared connection can be an Ethernet,wireless LAN,or wireless WAN connection.提供共享的网络连接可以是以太网、无线局域网或无线广域网。

3 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。

4 bureau   

n.提供或收集消息的机构；局，司，处；署

参考例句：

• The weather bureau makes daily reports on weather conditions.气象局每天报告天气状况。
• The Tourist Bureau arranged everything for our journey to Rome.旅游局已为我们去罗马旅行准备了一切。

5 statistics   

n.统计，统计数字，统计学

参考例句：

• We have statistics for the last year.我们有去年的统计资料。
• Statistics is taught in many colleges.许多大学都教授统计学。