新西兰英语 661 Job losses

 　　This has been a bad week so far for job losses. Yesterday, KiwiRail said that 158 staff will lose their jobs. Many of these people are engineering staff. Also Solid Energy, which owns coal mines, will close Spring Creek¹ in Greymouth with a loss of 222 staff and another 130 contractors³ who work at the mine. Another 180 workers at the Huntly coal mine will also lose their jobs. Solid Energy will also cut about 150 administrative⁴ jobs. Both Greymouth and Huntly are small towns where it will be almost impossible to find another job. Spring Creek mine has lost $100m since it was set up in 2007. Asia no longer wants so much coal for steel production.

　　These job losses are added to earlier ones. Last week the chemical company Nuplex said they will cut 60 jobs in New Zealand and Australia because of the high Kiwi and Australian dollars. The Kiwi dollar now buys 82.7 US cents.

　　Also, the aluminium⁵ smelter in Southland will cut 100 jobs because there is less demand for aluminium, and the paper mill in the Bay of Plenty will cut 120 jobs because newspapers do not need so much paper these days.

　　On the bright side, there will be jobs in the near future with the Christchurch re-build after the earthquake. It is not clear where construction workers will live as there is a shortage of housing in Christchurch at the moment.

　　Vocabulary

　　contractor² – an independent worker who is contracted by the company to do a specific job e.g. do some electrical work

　　administrative jobs e.g. office jobs

　　steel production – making steel

　　aluminium (Br Eng) – aluminum (Am Eng) – mixture of some metals used for beer cans and foil

　　smelter – melting metals

　　less demand – not so many people want to buy something (opposite: strong demand)

　　paper mill – factory which makes paper (a flour mill makes flour from wheat, a timber mill makes timber from wood etc)

1 creek   

n.小溪，小河，小湾

参考例句：

• He sprang through the creek.他跳过小河。
• People sunbathe in the nude on the rocks above the creek.人们在露出小溪的岩石上裸体晒日光浴。

2 contractor   

n.订约人，承包人，收缩肌

参考例句：

• The Tokyo contractor was asked to kick $ 6000 back as commission.那个东京的承包商被要求退还6000美元作为佣金。
• The style of house the contractor builds depends partly on the lay of the land.承包商所建房屋的式样，有几分要看地势而定。

3 contractors   

n.（建筑、监造中的）承包人( contractor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We got estimates from three different contractors before accepting the lowest. 我们得到3个承包商的报价后，接受了最低的报价。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Contractors winning construction jobs had to kick back 2 per cent of the contract price to the mafia. 赢得建筑工作的承包商得抽出合同价格的百分之二的回扣给黑手党。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 administrative   

adj.行政的，管理的

参考例句：

• The administrative burden must be lifted from local government.必须解除地方政府的行政负担。
• He regarded all these administrative details as beneath his notice.他认为行政管理上的这些琐事都不值一顾。

5 aluminium   

n.铝 (=aluminum)

参考例句：

• Aluminium looks heavy but actually it is very light.铝看起来很重，实际上却很轻。
• If necessary, we can use aluminium instead of steel.如果必要，我们可用铝代钢。