VOA慢速英语2009-Development Report - Getting Into a Job Market b

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

In two thousand seven, five young people in the American state of Massachusetts developed an idea. The team knew that the world is filled with mobile phones. About eighty percent of all people are said to live within reach of a wireless¹ telephone signal.
　
A fisherman with his mobile phone near Channai, India

The idea was to use mobile phones and the Internet to connect job seekers with employers. The young people wrote a business plan and formed a company called Assured Labor².

Assured Labor won a development competition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Three of the founders³ were graduate students there.

Assured Labor is an electronic marketplace. It has two parts. One is for the United States. That operation was launched in January in Boston. It links people with employers offering temporary jobs.

The other arm of the business is for developing markets. That operation is meant to help people get more permanent jobs. A representative is currently building partnerships⁴ with universities and international companies in Central America.

Assured Labor's president, David Reich, says the companies now place job advertisements on radio or in newspapers. Some even drive around in cars with loudspeakers announcing that jobs are available. He says the companies are interested in having more modern hiring practices.

Through Assured Labor, companies will list open positions on the Internet. People who think they could do the job could reply by text message or on their cell phones.

This how the system works in Boston:

The jobs available include house cleaning, dog walking and home repair. People who want their house cleaned, for example, can look online at a list of twenty housekeepers⁵. The list tells what services they offer and how much they want to be paid. People need two letters praising their work to get on the list of service providers.

The employer chooses workers they would like to hire. The company then sends the workers a text or e-mail message so they can respond quickly to an offer.

After a job is completed, the employer and employee rate each other. The rating is kept for future use. Assured Labor is not charging anyone right now, but the plan is to have employers pay for the service.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Steve Ember.

1 wireless   

adj.无线的；n.无线电

参考例句：

• There are a lot of wireless links in a radio.收音机里有许多无线电线路。
• Wireless messages tell us that the ship was sinking.无线电报告知我们那艘船正在下沉。

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 founders   

n.创始人( founder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was one of the founders of the university's medical faculty. 他是该大学医学院的创建人之一。 来自辞典例句
• The founders of our religion made this a cornerstone of morality. 我们宗教的创始人把这看作是道德的基石。 来自辞典例句

4 partnerships   

n.伙伴关系( partnership的名词复数 )；合伙人身份；合作关系

参考例句：

• Partnerships suffer another major disadvantage: decision-making is shared. 合伙企业的另一主要缺点是决定要由大家来作。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• It involved selling off limited partnerships. 它涉及到售出有限的合伙权。 来自辞典例句

5 housekeepers   

n.（女）管家( housekeeper的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Can you send up one of your housekeepers to make bed? 请你派个女服务员来整理床铺好吗？ 来自互联网
• They work as gas station attendants, firemen, housekeepers,and security personnel. 本句翻译：机器人也能够作为煤气站的服务员，救火队员等保安作用。 来自互联网